Brahminy Kite
英文名：Brahminy Kite（学名：Haliastur indus），是鹰形目鹰科栗鸢属的鸟类。属鹰科雕亚科栗鸢属，中型猛禽。其最显著的特征是拥有砖红色的体羽与鲜明的白头和胸，这使它在众多猛禽中独树一帜。分布于印度次大陆、东南亚及澳大利亚，偏好内陆和沿海湿地环境。
Brahminy Kite
43-51 cm; span c. 1.2 m. Female larger. Adult unmistakable: deep chestnut with whitish head, neck and breast. Flight slow and soaring on rounded wings with black tips and rounded, pale-tipped tail. Juvenile: brown; head and breast streaked; upperparts scalloped buff: in flight, pale patch at base of dark flight feathers extends along centre of underwing, separating brown wing linings from blackish trailing edge; whitish tip to tail. Immature: like browner patchy adult: overhead, belly and undertail-coverts chestnut. Singles, pairs, loose companies: scavenges along beaches; seizes fish or offal from surface, reptiles or insects from ground or foliage.
- Other name
- Red-backed Kite.
- Similar Species
- compared with imm. Brahminy, imm. Whistling Kite is rangier and its paler plumage contrasts more with black flight feathers; different underwing pattern and call. Black Kite; Little Eagle.
- Voice
- stuttered 'peeah-h-h'; peevish trills, mews and squeals.
- Habitat
- beaches, tidal sandflats and mudflats, estuaries, coastal forests, mangroves, islands, large rivers, harbours, environs of coastal towns.
- Breeding
- April-June, n. Aust.; Sept.-Nov., s. Aust.
- Nest
- bulky, of sticks, seaweed, grass, etc.; in top of tree, often mangrove.
- Eggs
- 1-2; dull bluish white, with hairlike blackish lines, rusty spots.
- Range & Status
- coastal n. Aust. and islands, from c. Carnarvon Ras. (WA) to Myall Lakes (NSW). Uncommon s. of C. Byron (NSW). Sedentary. Also s. Asia to PNG, Solomon Is.
- Distribution key to races
- 1. Haliastur indus girrenera
