On Mon, Feb 11, 2008 at 04:07:47AM -0800, Nikolas Haass wrote:
> Indeed Black Kites are very vocal - not only in Africa, Europe
> and Asia, but also in Australia (I heard lots of them calling
> in the NT). Some authors separate Yellow-billed Kite Milvus
> (m.) aegyptius/parasiticus (the one you saw in Uganda), Black
> Kite M. (m.) migrans (which you also probably saw in Uganda at
> this time of the year and Black-eared Kite M. (m.) lineatus at
> species level.
This touchs on what is still a mystery to me. Some years ago I
saw&heard Black Kite at Mataranka in the NT make a call very similar
to the ubiquitous Whistling Kite call. The BOCA cassettes had such a
call from Kakadu recorded by Rex Buckingham and HANZAB has a sonagram
(C) that looks to be such a call from a recording in Kakadu by Ray Swaby.
But David Stewart, who knows more than a little about Australian bird
calls, told me that it a great deal of experience with Black Kites in
western Queensland and never heard such a call - only the call-type in
HANZAB sonagrams A&B. Rex Buckingham's recording wasn't used in the
subsequent BOCA CDs because it was believed to be mis-labelled.
Since then I've visited the NT 6+ times but haven't heard the "Whistling
Kite" call from a Black Kite, indeed almost complete silence from Black
Kites. Various people have given me verbal descriptions of Black Kite
calls they've heard in the NT. These seem to be HANZAB sonagrams A&B
call-type but with verbal descriptions its hard to be sure.
Maybe I (and Ray Swaby and perhaps Rex Buckingham) thought a Black
Kite was making a call actually been made by a nearby Whistling Kite -
or maybe its a rarely heard call.
Also, some interesting Miluvus genetic data is in this paper:
http://www.ummz.umich.edu/molsys/publications_files/johnson-2005-prs.pdf
As much divergenece between 2 Yellow-billed Kite populations as between
Red&Black Kite.
Andrew
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