Plumbeous Kite

In Tikal NP, Guatemala our guide, Rony, identified a plumbeous kite standing high in a large dead tree amidst the Mayan ruins. The thing that stood out for me, weirdly, was the name. What the heck is "plumbeous"? Well, it turns out that plumbeous means dull, or lead-gray in color. 

They are slate-gray with paler head and underparts, a short black tail with two to three white bands on the undersurface, orange legs and red eyes. It has rufous patches on its primaries. You can see the white bands and bits of the rufous patch in the photo above. It closely resembles the Mississippi kite which is not as dark a gray. has white secondary patches and lacks the rufous wing patch.  

Illustration from Birds of the World. 

Illustration of it flying from Birds of the World. 

Range from Birds of the World.