Abstract
In 1920, a distinct Black Kite subspecies, Milvus migrans formosanus, was described on the island of Taiwan and since then it is officially recognized by all major taxonomic lists. However, there are no morphological or genetic studies that would confirm the existence of the Taiwanese kite as a separate, isolated population distinct from the mainland one. We compared 27 specimens from Taiwanese population with all the main Black Kite subspecies of Eurasia and Australia based on a mitochondrial cytochrome B gene fragment. It turned out that representatives of all the main haplogroups common in the mainland M. m. lineatus population currently live in Taiwan, however, 30% of the island population carries a special haplogroup that has not been found on the mainland. Thus, there is no reason to believe that an isolated population of a special subspecies M. m. formosanus may currently live in Taiwan. It is possible that such a population actually existed in the first half of the 20th century, but due to a catastrophic decline due to pesticide poisoning, as well as due to repeated hybridization with newcomers from the mainland population, the Black Kite of Taiwan is a mixed population that has little in common with M. m. formosanus, described more than 100 years ago.
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