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Kite (bird)

Article Discussion

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File:Elanoides forficatus Monteverde 03.jpg
Swallow-tailed kite gliding
File:Black-shouldered Kite, One for Peter - Flickr - birdsaspoetry.jpg
Black-shouldered kite in flight

Kite is the common name for certain birds of prey in the family Accipitridae, particularly in the subfamilies Elaninae and Perninae and certain genera within Buteoninae.<ref name=EB>"kite". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 24 Nov. 2014 <https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/319664/kite>.</ref> The term is derived from Old English Template:Wikt-lang, onomatopoeic from the call notes of the buzzard (Buteo buteo) and red kite (Milvus milvus).<ref name="Lockwood">Template:Cite book</ref> The name, having no cognate names in other European languages, is thought to have arisen in England; it apparently originally denoted the buzzard,<ref name="Lockwood"/> as the red kite was then known by the widespread Germanic name 'glede' or 'glead', and was only later transferred to the red kite as "fork-tailed kite" by Christopher Merret in his 1667 Pinax Rerum Naturalium Britannicarum.<ref name="Lockwood"/> By the time of Thomas Pennant's 1768 British Zoology, the name had become fixed on the red kite;<ref name="Lockwood"/> other birds named 'kite' around the world being named from their then-perceived relationship to it.

Some authors use the terms "hovering kite" and "soaring kite" to distinguish between Elanus and the milvine kites, respectively.Template:According to whom The group may also be differentiated by size, referring to milvine kites as "large kites", and elanine kites as "small kites". Template:Citation needed

SpeciesEdit

The following species, from multiple subdivisions of the family Accipitridae, have 'kite' in their English names:

Taxonomy and systematicsEdit

19th centuryEdit

In 1824, Vigors<ref name=Vigors1824>Template:Cite journal</ref> proposed five divisions or stirpes of the family Falconidae: Aquilina (eagles), Accipitrina (hawks), Falconina (falcons), Buteonina (buzzards) and Milvina (kites, containing two genera Elanus and Milvus). He distinguished the kites as having weaker bill and feebler talons than the buzzards, tail more or less forked, and wings longer than the tail.<ref name="Vigors1824"/>Template:Rp

In Elanus, he grouped the black-winged kite (now several Elanus spp.), scissor-tailed kite (now Chelictinia), and swallow-tailed kite (now Elanoides). These species all have pointed wings with the second primary the longest. The pattern of scales on the legs (acrotarsi) is reticulated, and the toes are separated. But Vigors noted that only the black-winged kite had rounded undersides on the nails of its talons, a trait found in the osprey but not in any other raptors, and thus suggested a separation of Elanus into two sections.<ref name="Vigors1824"/>Template:Rp A year later, he established a separate genus Nauclerus for the scissor- and swallow-tailed kites.<ref name="Vigors1825">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Milvus contained the familiar red and black kites. The fourth primary feather is the longest, leg scales are scutellated, and the exterior toe is united to the middle toe by a membrane.<ref name="Vigors1824"/>Template:Rp

Vigors placed Ictinia, "the Milan Cresserelle of M. Vieillot" and "the Mississippi Kite of Mr. Wilson", into Buteonina. Though noting that "the wings are of considerable length, extending far beyond the tail, a character which has induced M. Vieillot and others to place this bird near the Kites", he wrote that the strong affinity in characteristics and manners warranted it to be placed closer to the falcons.<ref name="Vigors1824"/>Template:Rp

20th centuryEdit

Swann's 1922 synopsis grouped all the kites together with the "cuckoo-falcons" and honey buzzards into a large Milvinæ subfamily.<ref name="Swann1922">Template:Cite book</ref> His order was: Elanoides, Chelictinia, Milvus, Lophoictinia, Rostrhamus, Helicolestes, Chondrohierax, Odontriorchis, Gypoictinia (=Hamirostra), Elanus, Gampsonyx, Ictinia, Harpagus, Baza, Aviceda, Henicopernis, Machærhamphus, Pernis.

In contrast, Peters<ref>Peters, 1931. Check-list of Birds of the World, volume 1, pages 192 to 205.</ref> grouped the large kites into subfamily Milvinae and most small kites into Elaninae, with a few small kites joining the honey-buzzards and bazas in Perninae. His arrangement of kite genera was as follows:

  • Elaninae: Elanus, Chelictinia, Machaerhamphus.
  • Perninae: Elanoïdes, (Aviceda, Henicopernis, Pernis, Odontotriorchis), Chondrohierax.
  • Milvinae: Harpagus, Ictinia, Rostrhamus, Helicolestes, Milvus, Lophoictinia, Hamirostra, Haliastur.
  • Polyhieracinae: Gampsonyx

The pearl kite Gampsonyx had variously been placed with the accipiters, forest-falcons, or elanine kites. It was not until the 1960s that a similar moult schedule established its affinity to Elanus.

21st centuryEdit

By 2015, genetic research showed that many of the kite genera are related to honey-buzzards. Several of the large kites are related more closely to the Buteo hawks (buzzards) than to other kites and sea-eagles.Template:Citation required

Boyd<ref name=Boyd>Taxonomy in Flux checklist: Accipitriformes "One thing that genetic results have made clear is that the kites are not a natural group. ... Kites also occur in three clades in Perninae and four clades in Buteoninae. ... Three groups of kites are part of Perninae. The Neotropical Chondrohierax and Leptodon kites, the Swallow-tailed Kite (Elanoides, sister to the Pernis honey-buzzards), and the Square-tailed Kite (Lophoictinia, sister to the Henicopernis honey-buzzards). Note that the honey-buzzards are not a natural group either."</ref> places the "true" milvine kites (Milvus and Haliastur) with the sea-eagles in tribe Milvini within Buteoninae. This results in the following arrangement (genera in parentheses are not generally called kites):

  • Elaninae: Gampsonyx, Chelictinia, Elanus.
  • Perninae: Chondrohierax, Leptodon, Elanoides, (Pernis), Hamirostra, Lophoictinia, (Henicopernis).
  • Buteoninae
    • Harpagini: Harpagus.
    • Milvini: Haliastur, Milvus, (Haliaeetus, Icthyophaga).
    • Buteonini: many genera, including the kites Ictinia, Rostrhamus, and Helicolestes.
      Ictinia is near-basal, after the Old-World genus Butastur. Rostrhamus and Helicolestes form a clade with the black-collared hawk (Busarellus) and the crane hawk (Geranospiza).

As early as 1882, Anton Reichenow had also placed Section Milvinæ alongside Section Buteoninæ in Subfamily Buteoninæ.<ref name="Sharpe1891">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp

In mythologyEdit

Isis is said in ancient Egyptian mythology to have taken the form of a kite in various situations in order to resurrect the dead.<ref>"Isis the Goddess". Egyptian Gods. Siteseen Ltd., June 2014. Web. 24 Nov. 2014. <http://www.landofpyramids.org/isis.htm>. </ref>

It also figures in several fables by Aesop which underline its character as a predator: The Sick Kite, The Kite and the Doves and a variant of The Crow and the Snake.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In pre-colonial Philippine mythology, the Tagalog creation myth begins with a kite, the sea, and the sky. The kite causes the sea and sky to go to war, and after the war, land is formed, allowing the kite to finally land and build a nest.

In Bushongo mythology, Chedi Bumba (third son of the god M'Bombo: the original creator of everything) in his quest to improve upon his father's design; was only able to create the Kite.

ReferencesEdit

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