Chelictinia riocourii
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
The scissor-tailed kite (Chelictinia riocourii), also known commonly as the African swallow-tailed kite and the fork-tailed kite, is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. It is the only species placed in the genus Chelictinia. It is widespread in the northern tropics of Africa.
The scissor-tailed kite was illustrated in 1821 for a work by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Temminck. The hand-coloured plate formed part of livraison 15 of Temminck's work. The binomial name Falco riocourii was printed on the wrapper to the livraison, but not included on the plate itself. The text that accompanied the plate in the final bound volume was not published until December 1823, after the species had been described and illustrated in 1822 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot. The scissor-tailed kite was grouped with the Elanus kites or with the larger American swallow-tailed kite, but in 1843 the French naturalist René Lesson assigned it to a separate genus, Chelictinia. The genus name Chelictinia is possibly derived from Greek χελιδών or χελιδονι (chelidon), meaning swallow, with ικτινοσ (iktinos), meaning kite. The specific epithet riocourii honours... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maiduguri | 🇳🇬 Nigeria |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Scissor-tailed Kite sighting in Maiduguri on a given day, based on 31 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 33rd most-seen of the 65 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March and December–January
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Scissor-tailed Kite in Maiduguri on a given day, against about 10% in August to October, the lowest months. Those are among Maiduguri's driest months, with almost no rain against 180 mm in August. November has too few records to rate.
Between 4 and 7 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Scissor-tailed Kite sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
Only Maiduguri, in our data
Maiduguri is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Scissor-tailed Kite sightings: about 20% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Accipitridae
The closest relatives of the Scissor-tailed Kite that you can see in Maiduguri (family Accipitridae, Hawks, Eagles, and Kites) are Gabar Goshawk (about 60%), Black-winged Kite (about 20%) and Dark Chanting-Goshawk (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Scissor-tailed Kite is recorded against all the birds logged in Maiduguri (31 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
