Saw a number of Black-winged Kites (Elanus caeruleus vociferous) at this site – pairs and single birds. One pair interested me as they were calling out to each other. There were other raptors, Brahminy Kites and many Harriers around, but not could be considered intruders (not interfering or threatening) apart from me. Hence I felt the calls were a communication between the pair and were made when apart from each other; very soon after I saw them mating (below).
The calls were made often and without the beak opened. The calls were the classical piping whistle – sonogram and waveform, see below…
…and an edited audio recording here: https://soundcloud.com/amar-singh-hss/black-winged-kite-elanus-caeruleus-vociferus-calls
I also saw one of the birds foraging by aerial-quartering – hovering above the dry paid fields looking for prey and making a fast drop to capture it. Hard to show this on static images (composite images shown above, taken 7.30am) and a gif-video (no time for conventional video) here: https://youtu.be/euw94yb6d3c
Amar-Singh HSS (Dato’ Dr)
Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
Location: Ulu Dedap, Perak, Malaysia
Habitat: Extensive Rice Growing region, providing wetlands
Date: 7th February 2019
Equipment: Nikon D500 SLR with Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD, handheld with Rode VideoMic Pro Plus Shotgun Microphone
