Kite, Black

Conservation status:

Rare Passage Migrant

Description:

A buzzard sized bird with a characteristically shallow fork to the tail. Uniformly dark brown with a pale patch sometimes visible on the underwings in immature birds. Juvenile has dark eye-mask, pale feather tips on mantle and shoulders, boldly dark spotted breast but pale belly with no contrast to undertail. Dark band present near tip of tail and whitish line on tips of greated upperwing coverts. Flies with elastic wing beats, soars and glides on on slightly arched wings, manoeuvering tail when scanning for food.