Please post your kite pics here and any interesting information that you might have about them.
The genus Milvus is characterized by the light body frame, mottled brown plumage, forked tail, floppy flight, and scavenging habit. Milvus is closely related to the sea eagles and buteonines ( Wink & Sauer-Gürth 2004, Lerner & Mindell 2005, Griffiths et al. 2007).
Red Kite Milvus milvus: Europe
Black Kite Milvus migrans: EU, AF, OR, AU - widespread M. m. migrans: s and c Europe to n Africa and sc Asia M. m. lineatus: Siberia to Japan, Indochina and India M. m. govinda: Pakistan and India to Malay Pen. and s Indochina M. m. formosanus: Taiwan and Hainan (off se China) M. m. affinis: Lesser Sundas to Australia
Yellow-billed Kite Milvus aegyptius: AF - widespread M. a. aegyptius: Egypt, ne Africa, sw Arabia M. a. parasitus: Africa south of the Sahara, Comoros and Madagascar
Description
A fairly large bird, about 55 cm in length and with a wingspan approaching one and a half metres. Its plumage is brown overall, and, as its name implies, it has a distinctive yellow bill, which, together with its slightly forked tail, is diagnostic. The unfeathered legs and the feet are yellow and the eyes are brown. When in flight the bird is fascinating to watch as it used its tail as a very active rudder to guide its buoyant flight, suspended on long wings that are angled backwards and the yellow bill and legs quite visible. The sexes are alike in plumage, but the females are slightly larger than the males.
Distribution
The Yellowbilled Kite is a common intra-African migrant to southern Africa. Fair numbers breed in the region, especially in eastern southern Africa. However, many others, perhaps the vast majority, visit the region as nonbreeding migrants. It occurs throughout the region, but several distinct areas of concentrated abundance are evident: in the southwestern Cape Province, the Transkei and KwaZulu-Natal, southeastern Botswana, the Okavango and Caprivi, and in Owambo in northern Namibia.
Habitat
Common in woodlands, especially those with dense rural human habitation, also in grasslands and desert areas, but more abundant in the higher-rainfall regions.
Movements
It arrives in synchronized fashion August– September throughout the region, except in the arid west, where it appears about a month later. In autumn, most have left the southern areas by mid-March, while it is only by late April that most have left the northern areas.
Feeding
Opportunistic hunter, pirate and scavenger with a broad diet; particularly fond of termites and other insects but eats whatever it can find – rats, birds, snakes, fish, frogs, roadkill and carrion.
Breeding
The kites are monogamous and during the breeding season they build a bowl-shaped nest of sticks in the canopy of a suitable tree, lining it with dung, wool and any other bits of soft material that can be found. The nests are usually well concealed in the thick foliage. The female lays a clutch of two or three white eggs that are marked with brown, and that hatch after an incubation period of about 35 days.
