THE ANIMAL FILES

Black kite

Milvus migrans

A forked tail steers above a menu of opportunities.

The black kite is a dark-brown raptor often seen circling on rising warm air. It takes small live animals as well as carrion and discarded food, and can gather with many others at communal roosts.[1]

Follow the evidence ↓
Black kite
Image: Tisha Mukherjee · Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Tail
Shallow fork visible in flight[1]
Food
Live prey, carrion and other available food[1]
Roosts
Communal groups can form[1]

Searching while soaring

Thermals let kites gain height and glide while scanning below. To seize food they may descend with the legs lowered. Soaring and the final downward approach are different phases in the search-and-capture sequence.[1]

A flexible source of meals

Fish, rodents, birds and other small animals occur alongside scavenged material in the diet. Some populations exploit city food resources. This flexibility describes food use, without implying that every population depends on the same source.[1]

Gathering after the hunt

Large communal roosts can form in winter, and migrating birds may also assemble in flocks. A gathering above a city or near a resting area may therefore reflect roosting or travel as well as a local food opportunity.[1]

A COMMON MIX-UP

Must a raptor eat only animals it has just killed?

No. Black kites also scavenge and use other available food resources.[1]

TRY A LITTLE REASONING

Why record time of day when observing a large kite flock?

Reveal the explanation

A flock assembling at a communal roost has a different context from birds gathering over a feeding opportunity.[1]

Sources & editorial notes

Adapted and translated from the cited Wikipedia revisions, with source-linked reasoning. Image credit and licence are listed separately above.

Adapted and translated from Wikipedia contributors; exact revisions are linked below. CC BY-SA 4.0

  1. Wikipedia contributors — Black kite (fixed revision; adapted and translated)
  2. NCBI Taxonomy — Milvus migrans (identity and classification)

Last fact check:

One discovery leads to another

Golden eagleGolden at the nape, variable through youth.Aquila chrysaetos ↗Bald eagleA white-headed eagle can be a fisher, scavenger and thief.Haliaeetus leucocephalus ↗Andean condorA huge bird can travel on rising air.Vultur gryphus ↗