Quote:
Originally Posted by goosey
Excellent image and a truely beautiful bird! I wonder why it is so white? It's usually birds in the very north of Europe here which are white to camouflage against snow.
|
I have no idea why white/grey/black. There are two similar species locally, this (
Elanus axillaris) and the Letter-winged Kite (
Elanus scriptus) both look almost identical but the Letter-winged is nocturnal whereas this one is diurnal.
The only way to tell the difference in the field is the black marking around the eye extends behind the eye in this pictured species (Black-shouldered Kite) and the underside of the wings has the black ends as in the image. The Letter-winged Kite's black patch around the eye stops at the eye, does not extend beyond and also there is a trailing edge of black in almost and M-shape when viewed from below at the front of the wings.
