Gambia Bird ID help (2 Viewers)

[Bewick]

OK, thanks everyone. Booted Eagle it is.

I don’t think you should count it as a booted, I understand the debate due to it not having that significant of a forked tail and it being a bit pale but, honestly, I do not believe that’s enough of a tell… I’ve seen bk which have had pretty pale heads and that had tails which haven’t been significantly forked. I think the tale is more for the black kite then booted eagle and it just generally resembles a black kite to me in general. Also I believe the black kite might has an extremely similar wingspan in general to a booted eagle so I don’t understand how you could really distinguish between BK or BE based on feeling in the field. I honestly don’t believe you can judge how pale it is with the quality of the image.

The tale isn’t fully stretched nor does the black kite have have a extremely forked tale in the first place. I also believe that the paleness between the leading and trailing edge of the bottom side of the wing would have a more distinguished difference in colour.

 

[Mike Ball]

OK. I will put it down as an unkown raptor. Thanks for the feedback. My strong impression in the field was of an Eagle of some kind, but I take your point, the available evidence is inconclusive.

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Chiffchaff 🤷 (for the warbler)

 

[Butty]

OP's bird appears not to have booted eagle's dark mid-wing bar.

?

 

[Brian J Small]

The Gambia hosts both classic Black and Yellow-billed in winter. Is the black bill tip apparent in the first photo real or artefact?

John

Even in winter Black is very scarce - and over recorded due to the fact that young Yellow-billed can have black tips to the bill

ML516421031 Black Kite (Yellow-billed) Macaulay Library

Macaulay Library ML516421031; © Paul Lenrumé; Boké, Gouvernorat de, Guinea

macaulaylibrary.org

Brian

 

[THE_FERN]

?

Not sure what we'd expect to see with an image of this quality

 

[Butty]

Could you post the original version of the 2nd photo of the raptor?

Not sure what we'd expect to see with an image of this quality

In the 2nd pic of the raptor (even as a photo of a photo) you can see that the greater underwing-coverts are concolorous with the remainder of the coverts - which is wrong for dark-morph booted eagle.

 

[Mike Ball]

Yes sorry, had a tech issue that stopped me doing so initially.

 

[THE_FERN]

Could you post the original version of the 2nd photo of the raptor?


In the 2nd pic of the raptor (even as a photo of a photo) you can see that the greater underwing-coverts are concolorous with the remainder of the coverts - which is wrong for dark-morph booted eagle.

They seem variable (from photos). With the newly uploaded edn of the photo I still think this is booted eagle. The jizz is just wrong for kite (e.g. body too small, bill in original pic wrong). But you're free to disagree of course.

 

[tconzemi]

Ok, I change my mind: plain underwings with just a white window on bases of outer primaries, nolighter inner primaries, rather light body to otherwise brown bird
May I suggest Wahlberg's Eagle

 

[MacNara]

I was just looking at this thread for education, and since plenty of knowledgeable people were replying I left off. As I often do, I played around with the photos on Photoshop. My adjustments are posted below - two versions of the original photo and a blue-colour-cast removed version of the camera screengrab. I can't see any fork in the tail, and I also can't see how this could be seen as the dark morph of anything. It doesn't look right for Kite to me on colouration either.

My thought was light morph Wahlberg but since everyone else was for Booted or Kite, I didn't think my opinion was likely to be correct. But since Tom has suggested it, may I humbly support his opinion.

 

[THE_FERN]

Ok, I change my mind: plain underwings with just a white window on bases of outer primaries, nolighter inner primaries, rather light body to otherwise brown bird
May I suggest Wahlberg's Eagle

That would fit. Long pencil tail

 

[Butty]

They [dark central underwing bar on dark booted eagle] seem variable (from photos).

Not according to any of the many photos on Macaulay that I looked at: all (apart from the misidentified black kites) show the dark bar.
I'm glad I persisted, and am happy to see the ID go in a different direction. Explains lots 👍🏻

 

[Mike Ball]

Thanks for the help everyone. The plot thickens. Very interesting.

 

[Bewick]

Ok, I change my mind: plain underwings with just a white window on bases of outer primaries, nolighter inner primaries, rather light body to otherwise brown bird
May I suggest Wahlberg's Eagle

Actually that looks pretty close, coloration also pretty accurate, though some photos on the internet make it look like the WE’s tail is more rounded?

 

[MacNara]

In my post #31 I supported Tom's ID of Walhlberg's, and since the thread has basically stopped, I assume that this has been accepted.

In that post #31, I said that I was looking at this thread for education. I have only seen Wahlberg's once definitely and, as it happens, from above.

For my post#31, I was looking at Birds of East Africa, 2nd edition (the illustrations haven't changed, though they are printed much darker in the 2nd edition). So I said, I thought it would be light morph Wahlberg's.

But looking at Bird of Africa South of the Sahara, and Raptors of the World, I get a quite different impression of this bird.

So, just as an education question, as a keen but amateur birder of Africa, how am I supposed to use and correlate these illustrations which are supposed to be of the same species?

The Raptors of the World underview shots are said to show 1b Female dark form, 1g Female intermediate adult, 1e Male pale form adult

I'm really finding it difficult to see these three as showing the same species. Even the wing shape doesn't seem to match very well. The juvenile from BofASoftS kind of (but not perfectly) matches the Female intemediate adult from RoftW, but otherwise it seems a complete mess.

(It's after midnight, so I won't be back for a while, but I will look at any comments when I am back. Thanks)

 

[Butty]

I'm really finding it difficult to see these three as showing the same species. Even the wing shape doesn't seem to match very well.

Given that these are from three different books and three different artists I don't see significant inconsistencies.

 

[THE_FERN]

In my post #31 I supported Tom's ID of Walhlberg's, and since the thread has basically stopped, I assume that this has been accepted.

In that post #31, I said that I was looking at this thread for education. I have only seen Wahlberg's once definitely and, as it happens, from above.

For my post#31, I was looking at Birds of East Africa, 2nd edition (the illustrations haven't changed, though they are printed much darker in the 2nd edition). So I said, I thought it would be light morph Wahlberg's.

But looking at Bird of Africa South of the Sahara, and Raptors of the World, I get a quite different impression of this bird.

So, just as an education question, as a keen but amateur birder of Africa, how am I supposed to use and correlate these illustrations which are supposed to be of the same species?

The Raptors of the World underview shots are said to show 1b Female dark form, 1g Female intermediate adult, 1e Male pale form adult

I'm really finding it difficult to see these three as showing the same species. Even the wing shape doesn't seem to match very well. The juvenile from BofASoftS kind of (but not perfectly) matches the Female intemediate adult from RoftW, but otherwise it seems a complete mess.

(It's after midnight, so I won't be back for a while, but I will look at any comments when I am back. Thanks)

Not sure what the issue is. The aspects are different (poses), and there's individual variation in the birds anyway. To me they're recognisably the same species.

What I'm less sure about is how well they capture the actual jizz of the live flying bird. For me, flying Wahlberg's means a long pencil tail usually held closed. Perhaps these illustrations are anatomically correct but the tail "feels" longer from memory

 

[Farnboro John]

Hopefully these might help a bit. The Booted Eagle was in Israel, all the others were in The Gambia.

John

1 Black Kite
2 Booted Eagle
3-4 Wahlbergs Eagle
5 Yellow-billed Kite

 

[Butty]

Hopefully these might help a bit . . .
1 Black Kite

Does at least demonstrate the very basic ID truth that black kite can readily show no clear tail-fork. Some here may take note.