Accipitridae sp. (Central Spain) (1 Viewer)

[SLopezM]

Hello everyone! Two days ago I saw these two different birds in Guadalajara (Spain). They were flying together, within a migratory flock of Milvus migrans. I guess they also belong to this species, but I wanted to make sure because they looked a little bit different to me (number 1 looks a little bit lighter, while number 2 shows a strange plumage pattern (moulting, perhaps?)).

 

[Sangahyando]

First one is a Black Kite, second one looks to be a heavily moulting Bonelli's Eagle, judging by the wing pattern, lack of pattern on the head and general build (although the head is held at a weird angle). In fact, given the frazzled look of the remiges and tail feathers, it almost looks like it escaped from captivity.

 

[Butty]

On such an extremely worn bird as no. 2 (it's far more worn than moulting), I'm not sure how to rule out dark-morph booted eagle. Can counting primary-fingers be trusted? General bulk?

 

[Sangahyando]

I went with bulk, to be honest. Also good point about the wear vs moulting, I seemingly forgot about that.

 

[SLopezM]

I include here another picture of number 2, just in case it can help.

 

[tconzemi]

I agree it looks like a bird from captivity with all fingers destroyed (or even cut), so the bird might look heavy but probably only because so many centimetrrs of wingspan are missing. Everything else looks ok for Black Kite to my eyes

 

[SLopezM]

So, number 1 is clearly a black kite (Milvus migrans). But you have considered different options for number 2, so... what is the final verdict?

By the way, I include here a new picture where you can see both number 1 (top right) and number 2 (bottom left) together, just in case comparing them helps.

 

[Richard Dale]

As per Tom above, both birds are black kites.

 

[SLopezM]

All right, thank you all for your help!