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Black-winged Kites are small raptors. The two sexes look alike. Head, neck and underparts are all white to off-white, the rump and uppertail being light-grey. Also the inner underwings are white. The outer wings show prominent black triangles. The upperwings are grey, with a broad black shoulder patch on the leading edge, from the shoulders to the alulas. These show as broad black bars on the folded wings. Beneath prominent "eyebrows" the eyes have reddish irises. The short, downcurved bill is dark-grey, with yellow cere and gape. The legs and feet are orange-yellow. Juveniles can have an ochre-tinged breast and white edge lining on the wing feathers.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Black-winged Kite is available HERE .

Black-winged Kites are a dispersive species of which there are 3 extant races. Their overall range extends from western Europe and Africa via the Middle East and Arabia into southern and south-eastern Asia, as far as South Korea, the Philippines, parts of Indonesia and New Guinea. Nominate race "caeruleus" populates part of the Iberian peninsula, most of sub-Saharan Africa, plus the north-western coastal strip and part of the Atlas mountain range and the lower Nile valley in northern Africa, parts of the Levant and southern Arabia, and some locations in southern Iran, up to the longitude of about the Strait of Hormuz. Race "vociferus" is present in an area spanning from Pakistan to East China, the Malay peninsula and Indochina. Race "hypoleucos" occurs on the Sunda islands, the Philippines, Sulawesi and New Guinea.

In Oman Black-winged Kites are usually seen as migrants, on their journey between Africa and Asia.

Race "caeruleus"