Keen wildlife photographer Ian Wade, who lives in Cotham, was relaxing in his parents' garden in Felton when the bird of prey soared overhead.
He grabbed his camera and began taking shots but it was not until he uploaded them onto his computer at home that he realised it was a very rare Red kite.
The bird, which has a reddish-brown body, angled wings and deeply forked tail, was saved from national extinction by one of the world's longest running protection programmes. It has now been successfully reintroduced to England and Scotland but is an "amber list" species because of its historical decline.
Mr Wade, 35, who travelled to mid-Wales to see the species last year, said it was very rare to see one in the Bristol region.
Mr Wade said: "I was sunbathing on Easter Sunday and I looked up and saw this big bird circling. I know there have been some buzzards nearby so I've been trying to get a picture of them. I ran in the house and grabbed my camera and got some good shots.
"Then later when I looked I saw that it was actually a Red kite – they are quite distinctive looking with the forked tail. I couldn't believe it."
Grahame Madge, spokesman for the RSPB, said: "Twenty years ago it would have been incredibly rare to see a Red kite anywhere in England but they have been slowly reintroduced through a protection programme. This began in the Chilterns and the north of England.
"The South West is one of the greatest gaps in the bird's range and Bristol is not an area where you would expect to see a Red kite regularly.
"This sighting is an encouraging sign that the birds are showing inclination to spread though and we hope that in a few years they will continue spreading to the region and be a more familiar sight in Bristol and North Somerset."
Mr Wade, who is currently putting a book together on urban foxes, is also looking for people in Bristol to help suggest locations in gardens and streets where foxes can be seen and photographed.
He said: "I am in need of good locations in Bristol to photograph urban foxes and I'd like people to contact me if they know anywhere. To make the book a bit more interesting I thought it would be nice to feature some of the people in the book if they like – make it more about people who enjoy watching foxes as well as about what the foxes get up to themselves."
Link: http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Rare-bird-spotted-flyingovergarden/article-3510638-detail/article.html
