Brahminy kite

Template:Short description Template:Speciesbox

The brahminy kite (Haliastur indus), also known as the red-backed sea-eagle in Australia, is a medium-sized bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors, such as eagles, buzzards, and harriers, all found in the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and Australia. The brahminy kite is found mainly on the coast and in inland wetlands, where it feeds on dead fish and other prey. Adults have a reddish-brown body plumage contrasting with their white head and breast which make them easy to distinguish from other birds of prey.

TaxonomyEdit

In 1760, French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson described and illustrated the Brahminy kite in the first volume of his Oiseaux based on a specimen collected in Pondicherry, India. He used the French name L'aigle de Pondichery.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The brahminy kite was included by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Neither Brisson nor Buffon included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Falco indus in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The brahminy kite is now placed with the whistling kite in the genus Haliastur that was erected by the English naturalist Prideaux John Selby in 1840.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=ioc>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Four subspecies are recognized:<ref name=ioc/>

Image	Subspecies	Distribution
File:Brahminy kite bird.jpg	Haliastur indus indus (Boddaert, 1783)	South Asia
File:Brahminy Kite.jpg	Haliastur indus intermedius Blyth, 1865	Malay Peninsula, Greater and Lesser Sunda Islands, Sulawesi and the Philippines
File:Haliastur indus -Karratha, Pilbara, Western Australia, Australia-8 (1).jpg	Haliastur indus girrenera (Vieillot, 1822)	New Guinea, Bismarck Archipelago and north Australia
	Haliastur indus flavirostris Condon & Amadon, 1954	Solomon Islands

DescriptionEdit

The brahminy kite is distinctive and contrastingly coloured, with chestnut plumage except for the white head and breast and black wing tips. The juveniles are browner, but can be distinguished from both the resident and migratory races of black kites in Asia by the paler appearance, shorter wings, and rounded tail. The pale patch on the underwing carpal region is of a squarish shape and separated from Buteo buzzards. The brahminy kite is about the same size as the black kite (Milvus migrans) and has a typical kite flight, with wings angled, but its tail is rounded unlike the Milvus species, red kite, and black kite, which have forked tails.<ref name=pcr/> The two genera are, however, very close.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The call is a mewing keeyew.<ref name=pcr>Template:Cite book</ref>

Distribution and statusEdit

This kite is a familiar sight in the skies of Sri Lanka, Nepal, India, Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and southeast Asia and as far south as New South Wales, Australia, through which region it is widespread and resident. They perform seasonal movements associated with rainfall in some parts of their range.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

They are mainly seen in the plains, but can sometimes occur above 5000 feet in the Himalayas.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

It is evaluated as being of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. However, the species is on the decline in some parts such as Java.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

BehaviourEdit

File:Brahminy Kite Perched Prey Kabini Nagarhole Dec21 D72 21603.jpg

Brahminy kite eating, Kabini Reservoir, India

The breeding season in South Asia is from December to April.<ref name=whistler/> In southern and eastern Australia, it is August to October, and April to June in the north and west.<ref name = "Beru03">Template:Cite book</ref> The nests are constructed of small branches and sticks with a bowl inside and lined with leaves, and are located in various trees, often mangroves.<ref name = "Beru03"/> They show considerable site fidelity nesting in the same area year after year. In some rare instances, they have been seen to nest on the ground under trees.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> A clutch of two dull-white or bluish-white oval eggs measuring 52 x 41 mm is laid. Both parents take part in nest building and feeding, but likely only the female incubates. The incubation period is about 26 to 27 days.<ref name=hbk>Template:Cite book</ref>

It is primarily a scavenger, feeding mainly on dead fish and crabs, especially in wetlands and marshland,<ref name=whistler>Template:Cite book</ref> but occasionally hunts live prey such as hares and bats.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> They may also indulge in kleptoparasitism and attempt to steal prey from other birds.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Brahminy kites have even been recorded taking advantage of Irrawaddy dolphins herding fish to the surface, in the Mekong River.<ref name=Ryan>Template:Cite journal</ref> A rare instance of a bird feeding on honey at the hive of Apis florea has been recorded.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> It also eats rice or cooked food left as an offering in India.<ref>V. Sitaram (2020) url=http://www.indianaturewatch.net/displayimage.php?id=635288</ref>

Young birds may indulge in play behaviour, dropping leaves and attempting to catch them in the air.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> When fishing over water, they may sometimes land in the water, but manage to swim and take off without much trouble.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

They roost communally on large and isolated trees and as many as 600 have been seen at one location.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

They may mob larger raptors such as the Aquila eagles. In some incidents where brahminy kites mobbed steppe eagles (Aquila rapax), they were attacked and injured or killed.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

A number of ectoparasitic bird lice in the genera Kurodaia, Colpocephalum, and Degeeriella have been reported.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In cultureEdit

Template:Further informationKnown as elang bondol in Indonesia, the brahminy kite is the official mascot of Jakarta. In Hinduism, it is considered as the contemporary representation of Garuda, the sacred bird of Vishnu.

In Malaysia, the island of Langkawi off the northeast coast of the peninsula is named after the bird (kawi denoting an ochre-like stone used to decorate pottery, and a reference to the bird's primary plumage colour). For the Ibans of the Upper Rajang, Sarawak, Malaysia, a brahminy kite is believed to be the manifestation of Singalang Burung when he comes down to earth. Singalang Burung is the ultimate deity of incomparable qualities and superior abilities in every dimension. He is also known as the god of war.<ref>Sutlive & Sutlive (eds.), 2001, The Encyclopaedia of Iban Studies, Tun Jugah Foundation, volume 2, p. 938</ref>

A fable from central Bougainville Island<ref>Template:Cite book

</ref> relates how a mother left her baby under a banana tree while gardening, and the baby floated into the sky crying and transformed into Kaa'nang, the brahminy kite, its necklace becoming the bird's feathers.<ref>Hadden, p. 244</ref>

GalleryEdit

Brahminy Kites in flight .jpg

Brahminy kites in flight
Brahminy kite (Haliastur indus intermedius) in flight Phang Nga.jpg

Haliastur indus intermedius in flight, Phang Nga, Thailand
Brahminy kite young.jpg

A subadult, Kerala, India
Brahminy-Kite.jpg

Haliastur indus indus in flight at Kathmandu Valley, Nepal.

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

External linksEdit

Historical materialEdit

Pondicherry eagle, colour drawing by Thomas Watling, between 1792 and 1797.

Template:Taxonbar