Black Shouldered Kite

[basquesteve]

I was lucky enough to catch site of this supposedly rare European bird in the Algarve , only to find out that its regularly seen here in the Pays Basque and even higher up in France

http://

[chris butterworth]

They are, supposedly, only 'recent' arrivals in Europe ( but that could mean anything! ) and they've been spreading north for about the last 15 - 20 years. I think they reached France in the latter part of the 90's and have been recorded as far north ( as vagrants ) as Belgium. Cracking little birds, aren't they?

Chris

[basquesteve]

My friend and I watched this bird with what appears to be its mate My friend has seen them in the same bush for a couple of years and thinks they have bred A Kestrel mobbed them its was the same size and appeared to win

[RoyW]

Originally Posted by chris butterworth

They are, supposedly, only 'recent' arrivals in Europe ( but that could mean anything! ) and they've been spreading north for about the last 15 - 20 years. I think they reached France in the latter part of the 90's and have been recorded as far north ( as vagrants ) as Belgium. Cracking little birds, aren't they?

Chris

The first time that breeding was proved to have occurred in Portugal was in 1963, although it had apparently long been suspected prior to that, with breeding first proved in Spain in 1975, and the first successful breeding in France taking place in 1990.
In 2011 there estimated to be almost 50 pairs breeding in France, as far north as the Gironde (but with most in the south-west), though breeding could potentially occur further north because in 1994 a pair held territory in Normandy.
Elsewhere in Europe Black-winged Kites have been recorded as far north as South-west Sweden (Nov 2009), with records also coming from Denmark, The Netherlands, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, and a number of countries in the south-east (the latter more likely to be from Africa than the expanding south-west European population.

Your bird might be an immature (the scapulars and mantle seem to be dark marked, not the pale grey of an adult).
I saw a few of these recently in Gambia - and they certainly are cracking little birds!

[Drosera]

I found this link
Black shouldered kite - BirdForum

[chris butterworth]

Originally Posted by RoyW

The first time that breeding was proved to have occurred in Portugal was in 1963, although it had apparently long been suspected prior to that, with breeding first proved in Spain in 1975, and the first successful breeding in France taking place in 1990.
In 2011 there estimated to be almost 50 pairs breeding in France, as far north as the Gironde (but with most in the south-west), though breeding could potentially occur further north because in 1994 a pair held territory in Normandy.
Elsewhere in Europe Black-winged Kites have been recorded as far north as South-west Sweden (Nov 2009), with records also coming from Denmark, The Netherlands, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, and a number of countries in the south-east (the latter more likely to be from Africa than the expanding south-west European population.

Your bird might be an immature (the scapulars and mantle seem to be dark marked, not the pale grey of an adult).
I saw a few of these recently in Gambia - and they certainly are cracking little birds!

Cheers Roy. A lot fuller, and far more succinct than my brief ramblings ( ).
It's amazing how fast the northern edge of some 'southern' birds distribution is moving - apart from the almost universal Cattle Egret. I'd have expected them to be somewhere near Scandinavia by now, considering how far north they have got in the USA. They only reached S America in the 1940's.

Chris

[basquesteve]

Hi Chris

You forgot about the Collared Dove as a southern species its now apparently found North of the Arctic circle

[RoyW]

Originally Posted by chris butterworth

Cheers Roy. A lot fuller, and far more succinct than my brief ramblings ( ).

I knew that one had been recorded in Sweden, and that there had been records in the Netherlands and other nearby parts of Europe, but I won't try and claim to have know all the details!
This thread made me wonder about Black-winged Kites in Europe so I did a swift bit of research. It's a shame that I didn't get the date of the Swedish record correct in my post (I did think that November sounded like an odd time of year when I was typing the post). I'm not sure where I went wrong, I can only assume that it was the date of the latest posting on the Birdforum thread that stuck in my mind (the thread quoted by Drosera is one of the pages I read).


As for the speed at which some species spread, I would think that in the case of the Cattle Egret the American population may have a much larger 'base population' from which to spread north. The population in Europe isn't especially large, and, because of the lack of ideal habitat in many areas, is relatively fragmented. These are not problems for the Little Egret which seems to be spreading more in Europe.

[chris butterworth]

Originally Posted by basquesteve

Hi Chris

You forgot about the Collared Dove as a southern species its now apparently found North of the Arctic circle

..... and some of the Eastern Canadian records are rumoured to be of wild birds ( as opposed to escaped jobbies from further south, where they are spreading like mad. ).

Chris