Black-shouldered kite
The black-shouldered kite is a small raptor found in Australia. It has predominantly grey-white plumage and prominent black markings above its red eyes. It gains its name from the black patches on its wings. The species forms monogamous pairs, breeding between August and January.
About Black-shouldered kite in brief
The black-shouldered kite is a small raptor found in Australia. It has predominantly grey-white plumage and prominent black markings above its red eyes. It gains its name from the black patches on its wings. The species forms monogamous pairs, breeding between August and January. It is rated as least concern on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of \”Endangered species. \”Black-shouldering kite\” has been designated the official name by the International Ornithologists’ Union. It resembles similar species found in Africa, Eurasia and North America, including the black-winged kite, a species that has in the past also been called \”black-shoulders kite\”. The female is slightly heavier, weighing on average around 300g, compared to the male’s average weight of 260g. The sexes have similar plumage, but males have a crown that is similar to the crown of a peregrine falcon. It mainly eats small rodents, particularly the introduced house mouse, and has benefitted from the modification of the Australian landscape by agriculture. The primary call is a clear whistle, uttered in flight and while hovering. It can be confused with the related letter-winging kite in Australia, which is distinguished by the striking black markings under its wings, and can be found in South Australia and New South Wales. The male is around 300 g, while the female weighs around 300 g, and the male is between 100 cm and 100cm in length, with a wingspan of 80–100 cm.
The adult black- shouldered kited is around 35 cm long, with wingspan between 80 and 100 cm in length. It hunts in open grasslands, searching for its prey by hovering and systematically scanning the ground. The birds engage in aerial courtship displays which involve high circling flight and ritualised feeding mid-air. They are regarded as distinct in the World Bird List. There is some evidence they are more divergent from other raptors and placed in their own family of raptors, Accipitridae. The black- Shouldered Kite and its relatives belong to a subfamily that is an early offshoot within the Accipitsidae family. It was first described by English ornithologist John Latham in 1801, as Falco axillaris. Its specific name is derived from the Latin axilla, meaning ‘armpit’, relating to the dark patches under the wings. In 1959, American Ornithologist Kenneth C. Parkes noted that the plumage of theblack-Shouldered kites was similar to that of the black.winged and white-tailed kites, and proposed that all three were subspecies of a single cosmopolitan species E. caeruleus—much like the pere Grinefalcon. Researchers William S. Clark and Richard C. Banks disputed this, pointing out differences in anatomical proportions such as wing shape and tail length, and hunting behavior.
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This page is based on the article Black-shouldered kite published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 08, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
