Dec 15, 2010

The stylish flight of the Black-shouldered Kites (Elanus caerruleus ) 31 - 35 cm

When I first saw the the Black-shouldered Kite what impressed me most was the Kite's trade-mark 'hover' in the sky. It will 'hover' wings flapping causally whilst scanning the vast horizon around it in search for a prey. The 'hover' could be as long as 1 - 2 minutes. It is a beautiful sight to behold! Most definitely one of the delights of the great outdoors.

In my last posting on this blog I featured 2 Kites in the process of building a nest. In this post are 2 different Kites feeding on a small unidentified bird and a large lizard which one of them caught in the paddy fields. A unique characteristic (I observed) was the sharing of the live meal. The first Kite would share the meal by passing part of it to the second Kite. This happened in both instances ie the bird and the lizard meal. Great caring in the wild!!! 

The Kites' habitat are usually in open country (paddy fields), semi desert and caltivated areas up to 1500 meteres.

Here are some photos for sharing.




Thanks for viewing! Cheers!

2 comments:

  1. Wicked predator swallows its prey whole!

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  2. Yeah these fellas can be really mean to their unfortunate preys! Also witnessed one of them swallowed a small bird's head whole!

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