The Black-Winged Kite

December 6, 2009

The

BLACK-WINGED KITE

(earlier called the Black-Shouldered Kite, which I think is more accurate)

is easily one of the most handsome common accipiters in the Bangalore outskirts….

You can see the black shoulders clearly as it lands on the insulators of the power cables:

bw kite landing on insulator 051209

It's rare to get a photograph of them on anything but a wire, so here's one I got: blackwinged kit on stick 051209 Just look at the lovely mask, and those eyes: 051209 bheemannkuppe bw kite on wire I was barely able to get the bird in the frame as it flew: blackwinged kite in flight 051209 Here's a video of the kite "wagging" its tail, which I got some time ago:

But back it came, to land on the wire again:

bw kite landing 051209

More photos from our Bheemanna Kuppe Kere trip (thank you Sangeetha!) on Saturday….coming up as soon as I can upload them…! We were 4 NTP members in a group of 7.