Black-shouldered Kite
英文名：Black-shouldered Kite（学名：Elanus axillaris），是鹰形目鹰科的鸟类。33-38厘米；翼展可达90厘米。美丽的浅灰色鹰类，具纯白色头部、躯体与尾羽，黑色肩部与红色眼睛。蜡膜与双腿黄色。眼前部有一黑色“逗号”斑延伸越过眼上方至眼后。幼鸟：浓浅黄色头部与上胸；背部与双翼具浅黄色或褐色斑驳，具醒目的白色羽端；眼睛褐色。逐渐变白，胸周具浅黄色区域。单只、成对、家族小群：显眼地停栖在枯树和活树、围栏立柱上；在路旁悬停。飞行笔直，快速浅振翅与在向上扬起的“海鸥”翅膀上平稳滑翔交替；翼下纯白，唯“腕部”附近有一道醒目的黑斑，翼尖发黑。频繁悬停，常双脚下垂：双翼呈深 V 形高举降落伞般俯冲扑向猎物。
Black-shouldered Kite
33-38 cm; span to 90 cm. Beautiful pale grey hawk with pure white head, body and tail, black shoulders and red eyes. Cere and legs yellow. A black 'comma' mark in front of eye extends over and to rear of eye. Juvenile: deep-buff head and upperbreast; back and wings mottled buff or brown, with prominent white tips; eye brown. Becomes progressively whiter, with buff zone around breast. Singles, pairs, family parties: perches conspicuously on dead and living trees, fence-posts; hovers near roadsides. Flight direct, with quick, shallow wingbeats broken by sailing glides on upswept 'gull' wings; underwing white except for bold black mark near 'wrist', and blackish wingtip. Hovers frequently, often with feet dangling: parachutes onto prey, wings held up in a deep V.
- Other name
- Australian Kite
- Similar Species
- Letter-winged Kite.
- Voice
- clear 'chee', with a sob, uttered repeatedly; in aggression, a harsh 'skairr!'; around nest, 'kik kik kik', etc.
- Habitat
- grasslands with trees; farms, cereal stubbles, market gardens, roadsides, sewage farms, overgrown vacant land, suburban paddocks, coastal wastes.
- Breeding
- mostly spring, but any time when food abundant, with 2-4 successive broods.
- Nest
- smallish, compact, deep cup of sticks; usually 7-12 m up in eucalypt or exotic pine.
- Eggs
- 3-4; oval, cream-white, heavily blotched chocolate-brown.
- Range & Status
- mainland Aust.; vagrant Tas. Nomadic and irruptive in response to local abundance of introduced house mouse. Closely related forms in PNG and other continents.
