This bird was the Black-shouldered Kite when I started birding…but only in the US. Elsewhere it was the White-tailed Kite, and the AOU changed the name to reflect the more common usage. However you call it, it is one of the most elegant raptors, both in coloration and in action. Seeing one hovering, as this bird is, or hanging higher on the wind with its wings motionless (kiting) is a thing of wonder. I caught it at the National Butterfly Center on the US boarder south of Mission TX, hovering over the bare ground north of the gardens, looking for prey.

This shot demonstrates one of the things I really like about the Canon SX50HS. I was at the Butterfly Gardens, obviously, to photograph butterflies, and I had the camera set to full zoom to do so from a comfortable distance. 1200mm equivalent brings you right in on butterflies from under 6 feet! When I saw the kite hovering, it was the work of seconds to spin the control dial to Sports, get on the bird, and shoot off a sequence of rapid images. Twice. I got three keepers from the two sequences…and more that were close duplicates. I know of few other cameras that flexable. 🙂

Camera as stated. Sports mode. 1200mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014. Cropped slightly for scale.

And a second shot.