Black-shouldered Kite - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The Black-shouldered Kite was first described by English ornithologist John Latham in 1802, as Falco axillaris. Its specific name is derived from the Latin axilla "shoulder". The name "Black-shouldered Kite" was formerly used for a Eurasian and African species, Elanus caeruleus, and the Australian bird and the North American species, the White-tailed Kite Elanus leucurus, were treated as subspecies of this. The three Elanus species have comparable plumage patterns and sizes, however, they are now regarded as distinct, and the name Black-winged Kite is used for E. caeruleus. Modern references to the Black-shouldered Kite should therefore unambiguously mean the Australian species, E. axillaris. The Australian Black-shouldered Kite was formerly called E. notatus, but it was not clear that the name applied to this species alone.

In 1851 British zoologist Edward Blyth described Elaninae, the "smooth clawed kites" as a formal subfamily of Accipitridae. However they are also grouped in Accipitrinae, the broader subfamily of hawks and eagles described by French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1816.

A taxonomic proposal based on DNA studies has recommended classifying Elanus kites as a separate family (Elanidae). A 2004 molecular study of cytochrome-b DNA sequences shows them to have split off from typical hawks and eagles at an earlier date than the Osprey, which has been classified in its own family.