The
Black-shouldered Kite (
Elanus axillaris) or
Australian Black-shouldered Kite is a small
raptorBirds of prey are birds that hunt for food primarily on the wing, using their keen senses, especially vision. They are defined as any bird that kills its prey with its talons. Their talons and beaks tend to be relatively large, powerful and adapted for tearing and/or piercing flesh. In most cases,...
found in open habitat throughout
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
and should not be confused with the
Black-winged Kite----The Black-winged Kite is a small bird of prey in the family Accipitridae which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as eagles, buzzards, and harriers....
, which is also called Black-shouldered Kite. Like all the
elanid kiteAn elanid kite, sometimes white-tailed kite, is any of several small, long-winged, hovering raptors. All are specialist rodent hunters and most are members of the genus Elanus...
s, it is a specialist predator of rodents.
The name "Black-shouldered Kite" was formerly used for a
EurasiaEurasia is a large landmass covering about 52,990,000 km
2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface...
n and
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
n species,
Elanus caeruleus, and the Australian bird (and also a
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
n species, the
White-tailed KiteThe White-tailed Kite is an elanid kite found in western North America and parts of South America.Their coloration is gull-like, but their shape and flight falcon-like, with a rounded tail...
Elanus leucurus) was treated as a subspecies of this.
The
Black-shouldered Kite (
Elanus axillaris) or
Australian Black-shouldered Kite is a small
raptorBirds of prey are birds that hunt for food primarily on the wing, using their keen senses, especially vision. They are defined as any bird that kills its prey with its talons. Their talons and beaks tend to be relatively large, powerful and adapted for tearing and/or piercing flesh. In most cases,...
found in open habitat throughout
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
and should not be confused with the
Black-winged Kite----The Black-winged Kite is a small bird of prey in the family Accipitridae which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as eagles, buzzards, and harriers....
, which is also called Black-shouldered Kite. Like all the
elanid kiteAn elanid kite, sometimes white-tailed kite, is any of several small, long-winged, hovering raptors. All are specialist rodent hunters and most are members of the genus Elanus...
s, it is a specialist predator of rodents.
Taxonomy
The name "Black-shouldered Kite" was formerly used for a
EurasiaEurasia is a large landmass covering about 52,990,000 km
2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface...
n and
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
n species,
Elanus caeruleus, and the Australian bird (and also a
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
n species, the
White-tailed KiteThe White-tailed Kite is an elanid kite found in western North America and parts of South America.Their coloration is gull-like, but their shape and flight falcon-like, with a rounded tail...
Elanus leucurus) was treated as a subspecies of this. However, the three species are now regarded as distinct, and the name
Black-winged Kite----The Black-winged Kite is a small bird of prey in the family Accipitridae which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as eagles, buzzards, and harriers....
is used for
E. caeruleus. Modern references to the Black-shouldered Kite should therefore unambiguously mean the Australian species.
Description
Black-Shouldered Kites are around 35 to 38 cm in length and have a wingspan of between 80 and 95 cm. Adults are a very pale grey with a white head and white underparts. The leading edge of the inner wing is black. When perched, this gives them their prominent black "shoulders".
It has a squared tail, and like all birds, a streamlined aerodynamic body.
Distribution and habitat
Although reported from almost all parts of Australia, they are most common in the relatively fertile south-east and south-west corners of the mainland, and in south-east
QueenslandQueensland is a state of Australia that occupies the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the south-west and New South Wales to the south. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
.They are also common throughout Southern Africa. They are rare in the deep desert and appear to be only accidental visitors to northern
TasmaniaTasmania is an Australian island and state. It is located south of the eastern side of the continent, from which it is separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania – the 26th largest island in the world – and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 500,000 ,...
and the
Torres StraitThe Torres Strait is a body of water which lies between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is approximately wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost continental extremity of the Australian state of Queensland...
islands. Although found in timbered country, they are mainly birds of the grasslands. European occupation of Australia has, on the whole, benefited them by clearing vast expanses of forest for agriculture and providing suitable conditions for much larger numbers of mice.
Food and hunting
Black-shouldered Kites live almost exclusively on mice. They take other suitably-sized creatures when available, including
grasshopperThe grasshopper is an insect of the suborder Caelifera in the order Orthoptera. To distinguish it from bush crickets or katydids, it is sometimes referred to as short-horned grasshoppers...
s,
ratRats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
s, small
reptileReptiles, or members of the class Reptilia, are air-breathing, generally "cold-blooded" amniotes that generally have skin covered in scales or scutes. They are tetrapods and lay amniote eggs, whose embryos are surrounded by the amnion membrane...
s,
birdBirds are winged, bipedal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay eggs. There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Birds range in size from the Bee Hummingbird to the ...
s, and even (very rarely) rabbits, but
miceA mouse is a small mammal belonging to the order of rodents. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse . It is also a popular pet. The American white-footed mouse and the deer mouse also sometimes live in houses. In some places, certain kinds of field mice are also common...
and other mouse-sized
mammalMammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose females are characterized by the possession of mammary glands while both males and females are characterized by sweat glands, hair, three middle ear bones used in hearing, and a neocortex region in the brain.Mammals are divided into three main...
s account for over 90% of their diet. Their influence on mouse populations is probably significant: adults take two or three mice a day each if they can, and on one occasion a male was observed bringing no less than 14 mice to a nest of well-advanced fledglings within an hour.
Like other elanid kites, Black-shouldered Kites hunt by quartering grasslands for small creatures. This can be from a perch (usually a dead tree, as illustrated above), but more often by hovering in mid-air with conspicuous skill and little apparent effort. Typically, a kite will hover 10 to 50 metres above a particular spot, peering down intently, sometimes for only a few seconds, often for a minute or more, then glide swiftly to a new vantage point and hover again.
When a mouse or other prey is spotted, the kite drops silently onto it, feet-first with wings raised high; sometimes in one long drop to ground level, more often in two or more stages, with hovering pauses at intermediate heights. About two-thirds of attacks are successful. Prey can either be eaten in flight or carried back to a perch.
Flight
The black-shouldered kite spirals into the wind like a Kestrel. It can soar fast, wings in a V shape. This kite flaps slowly and deeply, which bounces its body. The black shouldered kite can most often be seen hovering with its tail pointing down.