White-tailed Kite

White Tailed Kite

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

White-tailed Kite

The White-tailed Kite (Elanus leucurus) is an elanid kite

Elanus

Elanus is a genus of bird of prey in the elanid kite subfamily. It consists of four species.* Black-winged Kite, Elanus caeruleus* Black-shouldered Kite, Elanus axillaris...
found in western North America

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
and parts of South America

South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
.

Their coloration is gull

Gull

Gulls are Aves in the family Laridae. They are most closely related to the terns and only distantly related to auks, and skimmers, and more distantly to the waders....
-like, but their shape and flight falcon-like, with a rounded tail. Mainly white underneath, they have black wingtips and shoulders.

For some recent decades, it united with the Black-winged Kite

Black-winged Kite

---- Image:Black shouldered Kite I- Kolkata IMG 6405.jpg Image:Black Shouldered Kite Imw IMG 9888.jpgThe Black-winged Kite is a small bird of prey in the family Accipitridae which also includes many other diurnal Bird of preys such as eagles, buzzards and harrier s....
of Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
and Africa

Africa

Discussion

Ask a question about 'White-tailed Kite'

Start a new discussion about 'White-tailed Kite'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

The White-tailed Kite (Elanus leucurus) is an elanid kite

Elanus

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
and parts of South America

South America

Gull

Black-winged Kite

Europe

Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
in Elanus caeruleus, and collectively called "Black-shouldered Kite". More recently it was argued that the White-tailed Kite differed from the Old World species in size, shape, plumage and behavior, and that these differences were sufficient to warrant specific status. This argument was accepted by the American Ornithologists' Union

American Ornithologists' Union

The American Ornithologists' Union is an ornithology organization in the USA. Unlike the National Audubon Society, its members are primarily professional ornithologists rather than amateur birdwatching....
, so the White-tailed Kite has its original name back. Meanwhile, the Old World

Old World

The Old World consists of those parts of Earth known to Europeans, Asians, and Africans in the 15th century....
E. caeruleus is again called Black-winged Kite, while the name Black-shouldered Kite

Black-shouldered Kite

The Black-shouldered Kite or Australian Black-shouldered Kite is a small Bird of prey found in open habitat throughout Australia and should not be confused with the Black-winged Kite, which is also called Black-shouldered Kite....
is now reserved for an Australia

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
n species, Elanus axillaris, which had also been lumped into E. caeruleus but now regarded as separate again.

The White-tailed Kite was rendered almost extinct in California

California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
in the 1930s and 1940s by shooting and egg-collecting, but they are now common again. Their distribution is patchy, however – they can be seen in the Central Valley and southern coastal areas, and also around the San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean....
, but elsewhere they are still rare or absent. They are also found in southern Texas

Texas

Texas is a U.S. state located in the South Central United States, nicknamed the Lone Star State. Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, spanning , and with a growing population of 24.3 million residents....
, on the Baja California peninsula

Baja California Peninsula

The Baja California peninsula, in English the Lower California peninsula is a peninsula in western Mexico. It extends some 1250 km from Mexicali, Baja California, in the north to Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, in the south, separating the Pacific Ocean from the Gulf of California ....
, and in eastern Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
, and on a global scale they are not considered threatened species by the IUCN.

White-tailed Kites feed principally on rodent

Rodent

Rodentia is an Order of mammals also known as rodents, characterised by two continuously growing Incisors#The_Rodent_incisor in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing....
s, and they are readily seen patrolling or hovering over lowland scrub or grassland. They rarely if ever eat bird

Bird

Birds are wing, Bipedalismal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay egg . There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates....
, and even in open cerrado

Cerrado

The cerrado is a vast tropical savanna ecoregion of Brazil. The cerrado is characterised by an enormous range of plant and animal biodiversity....
, mixed-species feeding flock

Mixed-species feeding flock

A mixed-species feeding flock, mixed-species foraging flock or mixed hunting party is a Flock of birds of different species, often of different feeding guilds, that join each other to search for food....
s will generally ignore them. Outside the breeding season they roost communally in groups of up to 100.

Footnotes

External links

- USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- South Dakota Birds and Birding
on the Internet Birds Collection
VIREO