Square-Tailed Kite

[hotspur (Chris)]

Here is two photos of a Square-Tailed Kite (Lophoictina isura).

These have a large wing span up to 1.3 metres,travel by gliding,covering vast distances looking for baby birds and chicks in nest for their 'main menu item''

That are'nt all that common,the books say a bit on the rare side.These are one of my most favourite raptors

I think Steven Mudge captured a few images of these last year,at the foot hills
of Mt Coot-tha,Brisbane,which i thought was quite good to see,considering that they are'nt all that common.

I like the first photo best,i hope some of you find these of interest.

Cheers

[Dennis]

Wow – what a majestic, master of the air this graceful creature is!

Great shots Chris and you’ve done a good job on retaining some detail in the underside of the bird when shot against such a bright background.


Cheers

Dennis

[hotspur (Chris)]

Thank you Dennis! yes-i was rather pleased with the first pic,I thought others may have been keen to see.But it appears not to be.

I put this photo in other forums and got a large amount of positive feed back,Mainly from America,but from many other parts of the world too.

C

[kinetic (Steve)]

I agree with Dennis, Chris,

you have done well to get detail like that as he says.
As with all of your nature shots, I always look forward to seeing them.
Brilliant!

Steve

[telecasterguru (Frank)]

Chris,

They are a beautiful bird and a really nice image.

Frank

[Steve_E]

Great shots of an amazing bird Chris. I like the first one aa well. It's tough to get detail on these belly shots but you handled it very well.

I travel to FLorida in the spring and hope to eventually catch up to some Snail Kites there. We have Swallow-tailed Kites here in the warm months but I've yet to get close to any.

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Great shots Chris!
Better than the ones I posted.

Cheers,
Stephen