While driving in Kidepo Valley NP we encountered a very cool bird near the road in a thorn tree. It was a black-winged kite which forms a superspecies with the white-tailed kite of North and South America and the Australian black-shouldered kite. I've seen the white-tailed kite in Ecuador and in Encinitas, California, but I've not gotten a real good look at one. These are beautiful birds. There are three subspecies and we saw the nominate ssp. caeuleus which is found in the southwestern part of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), Africa and southwest Arabia.
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| This is a juvenile, which has less reddish eyes and is browner. The adults, with dark red eyes and very white head and breast are spectacular and mystical looking. And even more mystical when hovering above the ground. |
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| It is predominantly white (or gray) - remember though, this is a juvenile, has a black wing patch, wing tips and eye stripe; |
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| This is the best view of the black shoulder patch which gives it its name. |
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| They have distinctive forward facing eyes under a skeletal shelf that shades them. |
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| Illustration from Birds of the World. Also below, flying. |
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