Square Tailed kite? (1 Viewer)

Raptor ID needed

Hi! I was just wondering if you guys could help me ID this bird. My Gut was saying its a square tailed kite as i see them often where i live and had just seen one hunting very close to the area about an hour before hand.

However the facial markings just arnt adding up and have never seen one with such black facial markings. Im from Western Australia and it doesn't seem to match up to any other potential IDs. ive heard of some Raptors making there way here from japan and other parts of Asia, could it be a rare case or perhaps just a square tail with dark facial markings?

Thanks!

(apologies for the poor photos)(Photo in flight was from previous week of confirmed square tail)

Hey Dan, welcome to BF
My gut is saying Little Eagle

Hey thanks for the reply! I did consider this, infact at first glance i said little eagle! based on its intersting head feathers, but i think the chest is just too dark, I do have some little eagle photographs actually, from when i was in coral bay not long ago

The more i look the more i think it is one! Perhaps just a dark colour morph for the dark bushland here? Thankyou very much

Deffo Little Eagle - Dark Morph ...... seems quite interested in something down below too!



Chosun :gh:

Little Eagle yes.

I was about to change my mind when I saw that flight shot next to it but then I read that it was a different bird.

Agree with Little eagle on post#1, but the bird in post#3 is a Whistling Kite.

Thanks everyone! it was photographed on my street, i have never seen a little eagle the entire time i have lived here! Only spotted harriers and square tails.

Butler said:

Agree with Little eagle on post#1, but the bird in post#3 is a Whistling Kite.

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interesting , how can you tell? From the underwing patterns it looks almost identical to the little eagle.

General shape - wings too long for the eagle

Daniel1993 said:

interesting , how can you tell? From the underwing patterns it looks almost identical to the little eagle.

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Little Eagle should have a dark leading edge.

birdboybowley said:

General shape - wings too long for the eagle

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pshute said:

Little Eagle should have a dark leading edge.

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Thanks. Really glad I signed up to this forum, been doing this alone since i was a kid, I must have so many miss ID photos in my collection!

EDIT: Ignore this, only the flying bird image came up at first (which you already know is a STK), not the perched ones, which look like Little Eagle!

Sorry to disagree but I think the first bird is a Square-tailed Kite. Plumage is a perfect match for several images of STK I've just looked at, (assuming they're correctly labelled), and shape looks better to me for STK than LE.

Agree with Whistling Kite for birds in post #3.

Daniel1993 said:

Thanks everyone! it was photographed on my street, i have never seen a little eagle the entire time i have lived here! Only spotted harriers and square tails.

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Jeez, that must be tough to have put up with! |8.| NOT!

Spotties are one of my fav birds, and STK's I see only rarely - I'm always struck by the way they just 'float', almost like they're lighter than air .....


Chosun :gh:

Daniel, re Little Eagle/Whistling Kite differences, besides good points already mentioned, have a look at the difference in the demarcation line between the pale patch in the outer wing & the black in the primaries. On Whistling Kite the demarcation line is pointed in the centre & points towards the body. Whereas on the Little Eagle the demarcation line is an outwards facing curve. I hope that makes sense.

Daniel1993 said:

interesting , how can you tell? From the underwing patterns it looks almost identical to the little eagle.

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Underwing:
Little Eagle is tri-colour .... in light morph = caramel colour leading edge + bone-whitish diagonal band + darker trailing edge feathers. Classic 'M' shape pattern. NB. Dark morph is also tri-colour, but harder to distinguish, since they are all shades of dark brown. Wing is narrower than WK, so that even though wingspan is less, it gives the appearance of long 'plank' type wings, which are typically held straight out when soaring, which is usually in tight circles.
Whistling Kite is bi-colour ..... sandy coloured leading edge, and wing panels + darker trailing edge feathers. Also black, deeply fingered primaries. Typically soars in a 'wrist forward' position (as in photo1 of post#3). Soaring is much looser, and also can have primaries pointed down, or whole wing up in a shallow dihedral angle. Altogether more bouyant flight than LE, which you will understand if you look at weights, and wing loadings.

Tail:
Little Eagle is shorter compared to body, and thus appears much shorter than WK. Can be held in any number of confusing shapes, but usually trapezoidal (truncated triangle). Straightish trailing edge. Similar bone colour to underwing diagonal in light morphs, and similar chocolate to underwing in dark morphs.
Whistling Kite is longer and paddle shaped. Rounded trailing edge. Same sandy colour (as is mostly body) as underwing leading edge. Can also be held in different shapes, rarely fanned, always looks longer than LE.

Calls:
Little Eagle is usually a three note whistle (in fact you can have more, but always a multiple of three). Less often 2 note when displaying (folded wing rollercoaster dives, with wing shimmy on peaks). Once only I heard a one note loud 'attack' whistle, when the LE was buzzing a flock of Galahs (my guess was to panic, and search for weaknesses /opportunity).
Whistling Kite is the classic, long drawn out Seeeeoooww, which may be followed by shorter mangled whistling chatter.

There are other differences in 'jizz' around flight styles which you will notice most readily if viewing head-on. The LE is usually flat in the one plane, whether soaring, or gliding. The WK has a low, elongated 'M' shape from head-on, where the 'wrists' are held higher than the body, and wingtips. Otherwise when soaring, it holds straight wings from head-on, in a slightly upturned dihedral angle. Of course, there's always variations on all of this to stuff you up (such as dark WK's for instance), but generally put all this lot together and you won't go far wrong.


Chosun :gh:

Well more of a surprise seeing one then a complaint of not seeing one . I see the square tail almost every day hunting above and around my house, and the spotted hairier is my bogie bird that i just cant get a photo of!

Thanks for the extra info! Where do you learn all this stuff? or just years of passion and accumulated knowledge?

Chosun Juan said:

they just 'float', almost like they're lighter than air ....

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Chosun Juan said:

it gives the appearance of long 'plank' type wings
....

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Eloquent too!

Daniel1993 said:

Thanks for the extra info! Where do you learn all this stuff? or just years of passion and accumulated knowledge?

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I was lucky enough to see ~half a dozen different raptors a day (on v-e-r-y good days, sometimes twice that). Any knowledge has come from a burning need to know what I was looking at (or hearing), and much enjoyable time spent in observation.

In residence were a breeding pair of Little Eagles (well the female actually - she had quite the string of male suitors! - must have been a tough task master ...), and a rather more faithful pair of Nankeen Kestrels. Also breeding were Black-Shouldered Kites (one industrious pair knocked out 10 young'uns over 3 lots back to back in 9 months, whereupon I think the male dropped dead 3 months later from exhaustion!), and Spotted Harriers. Regularly patrolling were Wedge-tailed Eagles, Little, and Peregrine Falcons, and Whistling Kites, along with Brown Goshawks, and Collared Sparrowhawks. Less frequent visitors were pretty much everything else (except 4 species).

You must have some half decent gear to get those photos :t:
I'd invest in a good set of bins (if you haven't already), and I thoroughly recommend the two essential books:
** "The Birds of Prey of Australia - A Field Guide" by Stephen Debus, mine published by J.B. Books Pty. Ltd. (2001 reprint) ISBN 1 876622 34 2 approx. A5 size, 152 pgs.
** "Australian Birds of Prey" by Penny Olsen, UNSW press 1995, (hardcover, 256pgs, ~foolscap size)

Get those, and you'll never look back. Don't forget to keep an ear out for what all the other birds are saying. They'll usually see the raptors before you do, and have a different alarm call, or panic behaviour, for each type of raptor, and /or what it happens to be up to.


Chosun :gh: