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The Plumbeous Kite
 
The
Plumbeous Kite, Ictinia
plumbea, is a bird
of prey
in the family Accipitridae, which also includes the eagles,
hawks
and Old
World vultures.
The Plumbeous Kite breeds in the tropical New
World,
from eastern Mexico
through Central
America
to Peru,
Bolivia
and Argentina.
It also breeds on Trinidad.
Birds in the north and south of the breeding range, including the populations in
Central America, Trinidad, northern Venezuela
and Colombia,
and southern Argentina and Brazil,
are migratory,
moving into tropical South
America
in the northern winter. This
is a bird of lowland forest and savannah, which builds a stick nest in a tree
and lays one to two blue-white eggs.
It is typically thirteen to fifteen inches long and weighs one to 190-280 grams.
It is not particularly gregarious, although often seen in flocks on migration.
The Plumbeous Kite has long, pointed wings. Adults are mainly slate-grey, with a
paler head and underparts. The short black tail has two or three white bands.
The eyes are red and the legs are orange. In flight, this kite shows a rufous
primary patch. Sexes
are similar, but immature birds have white-streaked grey upperparts and
dark-streaked whitish underparts. They lack the rufous wing patch. The call of
Plumbeous Kite is a whistled si-see-oo. The flight is slow, with
frequent glides, and the prey is almost exclusively insects
taken in the air. This kite often perches conspicuously on dead branches, with
its long wings projecting well beyond the tail.
Tiny Hawk
The Tiny Hawk is a
small diurnal bird
of prey found in or near forests, primarily humid, throughout much of the
Neotropics. It is primarily a bird-eater and is known to prey on hummingbirds. The Tiny Hawk is aptly named; males measure a
mere eight inches, or about the size of a song
thrush, though females are slightly larger at ten and a half inches. The birds
range in weight from 75 - 120 grams. As with most raptors, there is
considerable sexual dimorphism in size, with females
measuring five to twenty six percent longer and as much as sixty percent heavier
than males. The adult male Tiny Hawk is dark slaty
gray above, with a mottled gray face, a paler gray supercilium, and a blackish
crown and nape. The white underparts are covered with fine gray barring, except
on the unmarked throat. The longish tail is dark with three paler gray bands.
Adult females are similar, but browner above with buffier underparts and browner
barring below. Immature birds come in two color
morphs: the brown and the rufous. Brown morph birds
are dark sooty-brown above, finely barred with black, and white below, heavily
barred with cinnamon. Rufous morph immatures are more chestnut above, and barred
with rufous (rather than cinnamon) on the underparts. They also have duskier
heads and brighter rufous tails than do brown morph birds. The cere and legs of all ages are
yellow, and the bill, which is relatively heavy, is gray. Adults have red or
red-brown irises, while those of immatures often are yellowish. Unlike most accipiters, the Tiny Hawk's
tail is quite short; it is squared or notched at the tip. Its wings are
medium-length, with pointed tips, and its legs and toes are long.
ALL IN ALL AN ODD PAIR WE
SAW TODAY
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