Kite - Bird

Kites are given a common name to certain specific birds of prey. They belong to the family Accipitridae, specifically in subfamilies Elaninae, Milvinae and Perninae. Some authors typically use the terms "hovering kite" and "soaring kite" for the purpose of differentiating between Elanus and the milvine kites, respectively.

Kites are raptors, along with eagles and hawks. The bird named kite has long wings and weak legs and spends most of the time in flight. Most kite birds feed primarily on carrion, while some seize live prey. Amazingly, in ancient Egyptian mythology, ISIS is said to have taken the form of a kite in different situations in order to resurrect (bring back to life) the dead.

Refer to the kite bird flying in the diagram below:-

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Physical Description of the Kite

Similar to all birds of prey, Kites possess sharp talons and sharp curved beaks. Some species consist of characteristically pointed wings, tails, or both. These birds differ in size, with the smallest species measuring around eight inches in length, and the largest species over two feet long.

Their plumage also differs, with some birds’ uniform in coloration, and others speckled with banding or other markings. Some of the different colorations include white, cream, black, gray, brown, tan, and reddish-brown.

Types of Kites Birds

There are a variety of species of kite bird, each with its own features and behaviors. That being said, some of the most unique species are highlighted below!

1. Snail Kite – Kite birds or Kite hawks reside in parts of Florida, as well as South and Central America. This bird’s peculiar name doesn’t come from their appearance or speed, but their preference of food! This species of kite birds love eating snails and the majority of their diet involves only apple snails.

2. Square-Tailed Kite – If the swallow-tailed Kite consists of a forked tail, this species has the opposite. Its tail is illustratively wide and squared at the end. This species resides in Australia and hunts in a variety of habitats.

3. Swallow-Tailed Kite – This species is quite simplistic to identify on the wing. This is owing to their tail forking off in two directions as a swallow’s tail does. Their underwings and body are colored white, their tail and wingtips are black, and their tail has a different and dramatic fork.

4. White-Collared Kite – This species is remarkable as it is notably rare. They live along a little stretch of the Brazilian coast. It is approximated that there are less than a thousand of these birds left in the wild. Their main threat presently is habitat loss, and the IUCN lists them as Endangered.

White Kite Bird

Small hawks and mostly white is an identification of a white tailed kite. A white kite has Gray wings and a back with black shoulders. These Hovers over the open areas to look out for mice, snakes, and other prey. Perches atop tall vegetation in open landscapes including coastal areas and agricultural fields.

Cool Facts About White Kite

• At the time of the non-breeding season, the White tailed Kite roosts communally.

• At times over 100 individuals mound into tall shrubs or few trees at the periphery of grassland or meadow.

• White tailed Kites consist of a tiny range in the United States, but they occur all across the Americas, breeding as far south as Argentina and Chile.

• An intricately linked and very similar species, the Black-shouldered Kite, occurs throughout Asia, Africa and Europe

• The oldest recorded White Kite had been at least 6 years old when it was found in California.

Black Kite Bird

Medium-sized birds of prey are expansively distributed over four continents. A black kite is believed to be the world's most copious species of raptor. These birds are usually dark in color. The upper plumage is colored brown; however, the head and neck tend to be paler. The patch behind the eye looks darker. The outer flight feathers sport black coloration and the feathers contain dark crossbars and are mottled at the base. The body feathers consist of dark shafts providing it with a streaked appearance. The gape and cere are yellow, but the bill is black. The legs of a black kite bird are yellow and the claws are black. Males and females have similar plumage but females are longer than males.

Cool Facts for Kids

• The Black kite is believed to be the world's most plentiful species of raptor.

• Black kites are tempted with fires and smoke, where they pursue escaping prey.

• Black kites protect their nest combatively from intruders; the birds easily detect humans who intrude the nest and cull for dive attacks.

• In Australia, when there’s a grasshopper plague, Black kites generally collect in swarms to eat grasshoppers.

Red Kite

With respect to red kite size, they are not very mighty, though they have been recorded robbing much larger raptors, like the white-kite birds, of their prey. These Red Kite birds scour around the wing, soaring, hovering and wheeling over open ground. They are chiefly carrion eaters but are quite competent at killing small birds and mammals. The reintroduction of the red kite to England and Scotland has been one of the critical conservation conquering stories of the past 20 years. The reintroductions succeeded owing to the habitat that’s able to reinforce a healthy population. The birds had been executed because of ill abuse, and not loss of habitat. In both England and Scotland, reintroduced birds bred for the first time.

Cool Facts About Red Kite

• Cautious safeguarding of the Welsh kites enabled the domestic population to increase slowly, with 20 breeding pairs. At present, the Welsh population is perceived to number between 750 and 900 pairs.

• The initial reintroductions of these species to England and Scotland occurred in1989, with the Scottish birds on the Black Isle.

• The English population surged very quickly, as birds began breeding at one year old, in opposition to Welsh birds that commonly don't breed until their third summer. Moreover, clutches were bigger, with more young fledged per pair than in Wales.

• It was the emergence of the breech-loading shotgun that resulted in the red kite's final demise in England, where a long-standing war had been pursued against these birds, with bounties paid by parishes for kite bills.

• Unethical poisoning persists to be a danger to carrion-eating birds like kites, even though the bait may have been laid to kill crows and foxes.

• Anciently, the kite was linked with towns and cities; here it was cherished as a scavenger, allowing keeping streets clean.

• In the Chilterns, the kites' zeal for carrion is prized by deer stalkers, who leave the guts from shot deer for the kites to clean up.

Habitat of the Kite

The different species of Kites live in an expansive range of habitat types. Some prefer living in tropical areas with high rainfall and warm temperatures. Other species find favourable the chill air of the subarctic.

Some of the different ecosystems that these birds inhabit include forests, rainforests, meadows, pastures, wetlands, steppe, savannas and more. Each species has distinctive preferences, though some share similar habitats.

Distribution of The Kite Bird

Different Kite species live virtually throughout the globe. Preserved for Antarctica, they reside on nearly every landmass on earth. These birds live in Asia, Africa, Australia, North America, South America, Central America, Eurasia, and more. Some species have amazingly huge distributions, while others live only in small areas. Moreover, populations of various species frequently overlap with one another.

Diet of the Kite Bird

Kites are chiefly carnivorous and feed on a huge range of prey. Each species looks out for different prey, and birds in distinct regions sometimes have completely different diet compositions. These birds feed upon anything from rats, squirrels, mice to lizards, frogs and snakes. 

Kite and Human Interaction

Human-Kite interaction differs drastically from species to species. Some species consist of huge populations extended across massive areas. Other species consist of small populations and only live in a single localized area. 

Did You Know?

• It has been asserted in indigenous Australian beliefs, that kites spread fires by picking and dropping burning twigs in order to flush prey.

• Old English names for the red kite include gled, glead, and puttock in addition to a number of place names, such as Gledhill in Yorkshire and Gleadthorpe in Northamptonshire.

• In the early 1930s, only two breeding couples of red kites were known to live in the British Isles, both in central Wales.

• A Red Kite is surprisingly lightweight. During the spring, an adult weighs around 900gm, which is sizably less than a mallard.

• Shakespeare had made a number of references to kites, such as Autolycus in The Winter’s Tale, alerting that when the kite constructs, look to lesser linen. This is in context to the robbing habits of nest-building kites.

• There is a notion that Britain's kite population could ultimately reach around 50,000 pairs, which is twice more than the current world population.

• In 2007, there were 12 validated cases of kites being poisoned to death in Scotland. 

Conclusion

Road-mortality rabbits, pheasants and squirrels form an integral part of the diet of the reintroduced kites in England. Though Britain's kite population is flourishing, this is not the case in several other European countries, where numbers are usually in a sharp slump.