Pallas Fish Eagle or Black Kite? (1 Viewer)

[CyberDoc]

Hi,

This picture is from todays edition of a local newspaper from Kashmir, India.

It is captioned as a Pallas Fish Eagle but I think it is a Black Kite which is by far the most common raptor in Kashmir.

http://www.greaterkashmir.com/Gallery_images/photo_23_1_2012_1427.jpeg

ID help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[SJC]

I would agree with you it doesn't look like a sea eagle, not least its small bill. Black Kite looks just about right.

 

[chris butterworth]

Size of the bill, the wing bar, the 'fingers' on the wings are all right for Black-eared / Black Kite ( depends if you split them or not ) but nothing like any Fish-Eagle, Pallas' or not. It's nice to see that it's not just British papers that are totally crap when it comes to the identification of wildlife in their photos.

Chris

 

[CyberDoc]

Thanks everyone.

Would you believe that the papers recently reported that a 'snow" leopard attacked people just because it happened in winter.

http://alljknews.blogspot.com/2012/01/snow-leopard-in-banihal.html

Same with the Kite. Because its flying over a lake so it has to be a 'fishing' eagle. To give the news editor some credit though, he/she actually bothered to look up a bird that actually exists in Kashmir. That in itself is commendable, because at times even the local wildlife authorities make preposterous claims about sightings of wildlife.

Size of the bill, the wing bar, the 'fingers' on the wings are all right for Black-eared / Black Kite ( depends if you split them or not ) but nothing like any Fish-Eagle, Pallas' or not. It's nice to see that it's not just British papers that are totally crap when it comes to the identification of wildlife in their photos.

Chris

 

[CyberDoc]

Original picture now available at :

http://www.greaterkashmir.com/Gallery_images/photo_25_1_2012_1427.jpeg