Brahminy Kite
Haliastur indus· 鹰科(1 photos)
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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
