Black Kite (juvenile)

We spent 2 weeks in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (South Africa) in February 2012. In the northern region around the Nossob rest camp we came across a strange natural phenomenon. Due to some kind of insect/termite spawning after good rains, the place was literally swarming with hundreds of yellow-billed and black kites! They would just sit everywhere - on the ground, in the trees, at the waterholes.

This image was captured late one afternoon at the Nossob hide where a bunch of them were coming in for a last drink before finding a tree to roost in for the night.

The name is misleading here as the raptor is mostly brown but is distinguished from its more common yellow-billed cousin by the black tip of the beak.

Techs:
Nikon D3s with Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II
f5.6 @ 1/2500 SS @ ISO-800
about 65% of the original image