What Bird Is That Forum

Ventura, CA
10/29/94

I think it's a White-tailed. I think Mississippi have almost no contrast between shoulder coverts and primaries, but are more the same gray over those areas.

Black shoulder patches mean White-Tailes Kite, Swallow Tailed has the full black back

Based on range, what are the options besides White-tailed?

Thanks.

Bering Birder had it labelled as a Black-shouldered Kite, an Australian species very similar to the Black-winged Kite of Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Don't know what he was thinking, and he doesn't remember.

Bear in mind he photographed the African bird below in Southern California in the 90's. Probably escaped from a sanctuary or something.

Greyhawk wrote: Sat Apr 11, 2026 11:14 am Thanks.

Bering Birder had it labelled as a Black-shouldered Kite, an Australian species very similar to the Black-winged Kite of Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Don't know what he was thinking, and he doesn't remember.

Bear in mind he photographed the African bird below in Southern California in the 90's. Probably escaped from a sanctuary or something.


SWLA175.JPG

All three of those kites were once considered the same species, the Black-shouldered kite. There was a three-way split in 1993 that resulted in the three common Elanus species (White-tailed in the Americas, Black-winged in Eurasia, and Black-shouldered in Australia).

The fourth species of the genus, the Letter-winged Kite, is probably one of the coolest birds I'm aware of. They're basically nocturnal, communal hunting White-tailed Kites with boom-or-bust populations that depend on the current size of the Long-tailed Rat population, which is determined by how much rain there is each year.

Aidan B wrote: Sun Apr 12, 2026 9:56 am All three of those kites were once considered the same species, the Black-shouldered kite. There was a three-way split in 1993 that resulted in the three common Elanus species (White-tailed in the Americas, Black-winged in Eurasia, and Black-shouldered in Australia).

Oh. So this time when he said it was probably reclassification he was actually right. Broken clock.

I asked this on the old forum but the response was pretty much negative as I recall: is there a good single source that logs the history of taxonomical changes like this?

Greyhawk wrote: Sun Apr 12, 2026 10:25 am I asked this on the old forum but the response was pretty much negative as I recall: is there a good single source that logs the history of taxonomical changes like this?

I think you have to go to the AOS web site and slog through each of the 66 supplements to their 1998 base list.