lineatus, respectively) are migratory, moving to the tropics in winter, but races in warmer regions such as the Indian M. European and central Asian birds ( subspecies M. The temperate populations of this kite tend to be migratory while the tropical ones are resident. The species is found in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Males and females have the same plumage but females are longer than male and have a little larger wingspan. They have a distinctive shrill whistle followed by a rapid whinnying call. The legs are yellow and the claws are black. The cere and gape are yellow, but the bill is black (unlike that of the yellow-billed kite). The body feathers have dark shafts giving it a streaked appearance. The lower parts of the body are pale brown, becoming lighter towards the chin. The outer flight feathers are black and the feathers have dark cross bars and are mottled at the base. The upper plumage is brown but the head and neck tend to be paler. The sexes are alike though the male is a little smaller and less aggressive (this is the case in most birds of prey). formosanus – Kuroda, 1920: Taiwan kiteīlack kites can be distinguished from red kites by the slightly smaller size, less forked tail (visible in flight), and generally dark plumage without any rufous. Sulawesi and possibly Lesser Sunda Islands Papua New Guinea except mountains NE and E Australia. The name pariah originates from the Indian caste system and usage of this name is deprecated. Easily distinguished by the shallow forked tail. Can be seen circling and soaring in urban areas. A dark brown kite found throughout the subcontinent. govinda – Sykes, 1832: small Indian kite (formerly pariah kite)Įastern Pakistan east through tropical India and Sri Lanka to Indochina and Malay Peninsula. Northern inland birds migrate to E Persian Gulf coast and S Asia in winter. Siberia to Amurland S around Himalaya to N India, N Indochina and S China Japan. migrans – ( Boddaert, 1783): European black kiteīreeds central, southern and eastern Europe, as well as the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa, to Tien Shan and south to northwest Pakistan. lineatus, but this is not well supported. lineatus) should be elevated to full species status as M. There have been some suggestions that the black-eared kite ( M. They occur throughout Africa except for the Congo Basin and the Sahara Desert. Recent DNA studies suggest that the yellow-billed African races parasitus and aegyptius differ significantly from black kites in the Eurasian clade, and should be considered a separate allopatric species: yellow-billed kite, M. The red kite has been known to hybridize with the black kite (in captivity where both species were kept together, and in the wild on the Cape Verde Islands). Milvus is the Latin word for a red kite the specific migrans means "migrating" from the Latin migrare "to migrate". The current genus Milvus was erected by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède in 1799. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Falco migrans in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. The black kite was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux in 1770. The European populations are small, but the South Asian population is very large. Several subspecies are recognized and formerly had their own English names. The black kite is widely distributed through the temperate and tropical parts of Eurasia and parts of Australasia and Oceania, with the temperate region populations tending to be migratory. They are also vociferous with a shrill whinnying call. Their angled wing and distinctive forked tail make them easy to identify. They spend much time soaring and gliding in thermals in search of food. Unlike others of the group, black kites are opportunistic hunters and are more likely to scavenge. Current global population estimates run up to 6 million individuals. It is thought to be the world's most abundant species of Accipitridae, although some populations have experienced dramatic declines or fluctuations. The black kite ( Milvus migrans) is a medium-sized bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors.
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