Appearance:

A medium sized, long-winged raptor, with deeply forked tail. Adults with warm brown underparts and typical whitish "window" contrasting with black wing tips. Tail rufous above. Easily confused with Black Kite, but this has shallower forked tail and gives a darker brown impression. Note that birds gliding with tail fanned may give impression of less forked tail. Flight elegant, with frequent and typical tail twisting to maintain position in the air.

Sound:

Mainly heard in breeding season. A piercing long whistle, quickly ascending, then descending "piuuu". Often used in movies to give an eerie wildlife mood. Differs from Black Kite in being a clear whistle all the way through the call, without "shivering". Higher pitched than Buzzard, and with less pause between calls.

Call:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

CC-sound:Jens Kirkeby, Licence,Link.

Appearance:

Small and agile gull with all black wing-tips, black legs (adults) and yellow bill. Area close to wing-tips much paler than rest of wings, and often visible at surprisingly long range (more so than the black tips). Adult winter with grey neck and black half-collar. Juveniles with black zig-zag pattern to wings, resembling pattern seen in Little Gull, Ross's Gull and Sabine's Gull. Differs from those in; no dark bar on secondaries, underparts of wing white, back grey, black on primaries reaches wing-tip. Flight action different from larger gulls; fast, stiff wing-beats and elegant maneuvering even in strong winds.

Sound:

Highly vocal at breeding ground. A mewing "kitti-wake", with the pitch rising on the second drawn out syllable, and then falling. Generally silent elsewhere, except when squabbling over food.

Contact call:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

Sounds:Recorded by Stein Ø. Nilsen,http://www.xeno-canto.org ,CC license