Seville, Spain birds; Swifts and Raptors (1 Viewer)

[Kryptos18]

My brother sent me a whole bunch of pics he's taken in the Seville area over the last week or so, just looking to confirm a couple IDs.

Which Swifts? Common or Pallid?

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/8476/swift1e.jpg
http://img862.imageshack.us/img862/490/swift2.jpg

Nightingale?

http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/165/nightingale.jpg

Dark-morph Booted Eagle?

http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/2161/dmbooted.jpg

Finally, Red Kite? Taken nearer to the coast, I think around Heulva.

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/2972/redkite.jpg

Thanks!

 

[Jonny721]

1 - Pallid Swift I think
2 - Nightingale
3 - Black Kite I think
4 - Red Kite

 

[Barred Wobbler]

3 is a booted eagle.

 

[eagle golden]

I would go with booted eagle no 3, the nightingale has a ring but cannot quite read no, good pictures.

 

[Odonate]

Are the Swifts Pallids? The second bird looks to have pointed wings and a good contrast between the underwing coverts and the primaries/secondaries. First bird also does not look right but from the photo I wouldn't like to speculate. Neither bird seems to show any scaling....

 

[John Cantelo]

1 - I always find swifts in photos like this hard to judge as distance and bright light means plumage details (like pale fringing) can't always be seen, judgement of precise wing shape can be hard to assess from one shot and strong light reflecting off the underwing/underparts can be confusing. Here in one shot the upper wing tip looks sharp, but the lower one much blunter! On balance, though, I tend towards Common Swift.
2 - Nightingale
3 - dark phase Booted Eagle
4 - on my initial glance the warmth reddish of the underparts made me think 'Red Kite', but close examination made me less sure since the bird didn't have that 'rangy long tailed look'. The tail certainly doesn't look that long nor the fork not that deep. There's something about the head that looks wrong too (is it too extensively pale?). The pale patch on the wing doesn't look white enough either. Black should have 6 primary tips and Red only 5, but the closed wing/them hard to count in this photo. What of the warmth of the underparts? Well, some Back Kites can be this warm below. So on balance I'd like to see more shots to rule out the odd atypically reddish Black Kite!

 

[KenM]

Image 4 is an adult Red Kite....I've counted 5 dark prim.tips only,on the starboard wing, the tail looks shorter because of the fore-shortening on the shot angle, and the pale window in the wing is evident on the port wing.

cheers

 

[Motmot]

Last bird is a Black Kite. These reddish individuals often cause confusion but tail barring/colour and 'hand' colour are 100% Black Kite. Compare with the bird below:

http://www.pbase.com/cristianjensen/image/108148580

 

[Simon Wates]

I agree with Motmot!

 

[Jane Turner]

I've seen a fair few reddish Black Kites now. I'd have the swifts as Common

 

[nickderry]

I agree with black kite for the last one too - reddish individuals are quite common.