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White-tailed Kite

Elanus leucurusOrder: FALCONIFORMESFamily: Kites, Eagles and Hawks (Accipitridae)

White-tailed Kite Portrait
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General

White-tailed Kite: Small hawk with gray upperparts, black shoulders, and white face and underparts. Underwings are white and gray with dark patches at bend. Tail is square, pale gray, and shorter than folded wings. Sexes are similar. Juvenile has gray-brown upperparts, dark wings, and faintly streaked, pale brown underparts.

Range and Habitat

White-tailed Kite: Common in northwest Africa, southern Asia, the East Indies, Arabia, and Africa south of the Sahara. Also occurs on west coast of the U.S. and in parts of Mexico. Preferred habitats include open savannah, cultivated highlands, grassy plains, and semi-desert grasslands.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"keep-keep-keep", "weep-weep", "plee-wit, plee-witt"

Interesting Facts

 White-tailed Kite roosts communally during non-breeding seasons.

 Researchers have yet to determine whether the White-tailed Kite is migratory, nomadic, or both.

 The child’s toy made of wood and paper was named for these birds.

 A group of kites has many collective nouns, including a "brood", "kettle", "roost", "stooping", and "string" of kites.



Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Range Map for White-tailed Kite
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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.
Family Kite (Accipitridae)_blue
Species Elanus leucurus
Length15 - 17 Inches
Wingspan41 Inches

White-tailed Kite

White-tailed Kite: Small hawk with gray upperparts, black shoulders, and white face and underparts. Eyes are red, bill is black. Underwings are white and gray with dark patches at bend. Tail is square, pale gray, and shorter than folded wings. Legs and feet are gray. Soars on thermals and updrafts.

● Song: "keep-keep-keep", "weep-weep", "plee-wit, plee-witt"

● Foraging & Feeding: White-tailed Kite: Diet consists of voles, field mice, pocket gophers, ground squirrels, shrews, small birds, small snakes, lizards, frogs, grasshoppers, crickets, and beetles; hunts while hovering, often pausing to study the ground before swooping down on prey.

● Breeding & nesting: White-tailed Kite: Three to six white eggs with brown blotches are laid in a loose nest made of thin twigs. Male brings most of the material, which is then worked into the nest by the female. Female incubates eggs for about 30 days, with male sometimes assisting; male feeds her on or near the nest during incubation.

● Similar species: White-tailed Kite: Gulls and terns lack black shoulder and wrist marks and have longer bills. Mississippi Kite is much darker and lacks shoulder and wrist marks.

Flight Pattern

Slow measured deep wing beats., Soars on thermals and updrafts.
White-tailed Kite Body Illustration
● Range & Habitat: White-tailed Kite: Common in northwest Africa, southern Asia, the East Indies, Arabia, and Africa south of the Sahara. Also occurs on west coast of the U.S. and in parts of Mexico. Preferred habitats include open savannah, cultivated highlands, grassy plains, and semi-desert grasslands.
BreedingMonogamous, Loose colonies
PopulationCommon but local
MigrationNonmigratory
Weight12 Ounces