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Black Kite | Milvus migrans
Zwarte wouw | Milano negro
The Black Kite is one of the most numerous raptors in the world, distributed across Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. European and western Asian birds migrate to sub-Saharan Africa. The odd bird has made the crossing to the New World; in the Caribbean the species has been recorded on Trinidad, Barbados, Guadeloupe and the Bahamas.
Voice
A high, quavering whistle that falls at the end, peeuuu-u-u-u. Heard less often away from the breeding grounds.
Recording: Esperanza Poveda — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
55–60 cm, a medium-sized, dark raptor with long wings and a long, shallowly forked tail that looks almost square when spread. Adults are dark brown with a paler, greyish head and a pale band across the upperwing coverts. Below, the primaries are slightly paler at the base. Bill black with yellow cere, legs yellow. Immatures are more pale-spotted, with a dark mask behind the eye. The flight is buoyant, on loosely angled wings, with the tail constantly twisting.
Confusion species
Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura holds its wings in a V, has pale flight feathers below and a bare head. Common Black Hawk Buteogallus anthracinus is stockier, with broader wings and a short tail with a white band. The dark morph of Long-winged Harrier Circus buffoni has a white rump and a long, straight tail.
Habitat
Very varied: open country, farmland, rice fields, banks of rivers and lakes, rubbish dumps and the edges of towns. It eats carrion, fish, small animals, insects and refuse, and often feeds in groups at fires and dumps.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
Vagrant to Trinidad, Barbados, Guadeloupe and the Bahamas; there is a photographed but unconfirmed report from Dominica. Outside the region it breeds across much of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia; European birds winter in sub-Saharan Africa.
How and when to look
A dark raptor with a forked, twisting tail over open country or a dump on Trinidad or elsewhere in the southern Lesser Antilles is worth a closer look. Photographs of the tail and wing pattern are needed for a new record.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The species is very numerous worldwide; locally it suffers from poisoning, electrocution and the loss of wetlands.
Scientific name
Milvus migrans | (Boddaert, 1783)
Boddaert described the species in 1783 as Falco migrans; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Milvus was introduced in 1799 by De Lacépède. Milvus is the Latin word for the red kite. migrans is Latin for 'migrating', from migrare 'to migrate', after the movements of the northern populations. The specimen the first description was based on came from France.