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Black-winged kite
Elanus caeruleus
-19.0189, 16.3464
Field Notes
Description:
This long-winged raptor is predominantly grey or white with black shoulder patches, wing tips and eye stripe. The long falcon-like wings extend beyond the tail when the bird is perched. In flight, the short and square tail is visible and it is not forked as in the typical kites of the genus Milvus. When perched, often on roadside wires, it often adjusts its wings and jerks its tail up and down as if to balance itself. The sexes are alike in plumage.Their large forward-facing eyes and velvety plumage are characters that are shared with owls and the genus itself has been considered as a basal group within the Accipitridae.
Habitat:
The Black-winged Kite is a species primarily of open land and semi-deserts in sub-Saharan Africa.The prey include grasshoppers, crickets and other large insects, lizards and rodents. Injured birds, small snakes and frogs have also been recorded.The slow hunting flight is like a harrier, but it will hover like a Kestrel. It has on rare occasions been known to hunt prey in flight. Favourite perches are used for hunting and for feeding but large prey may sometimes be handled on the ground. In southern Africa, they appear to favour roadside verges for foraging and are sometimes killed by collisions with vehicles
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