Editing Elanus

{{Short description|Genus of birds-of-prey}}
<!--Short description added with WikiMacaroons' AutoShortDesc.-->{{Automatic taxobox
| image = Black-shouldered Kite Sandy Hollow.jpg
| image_caption = [[Black-shouldered kite]] (''Elanus axillaris'') 
| taxon = Elanus
| authority = [[Marie Jules César Savigny|Savigny]], 1809
| type_species= ''[[Black-winged kite|Elanus caesius]]''<ref name=HM4>{{cite web |url= https://www.aviansystematics.org/4th-edition-checklist?viewfamilies=36 |title= Accipitridae |author=<!--Not stated--> |date= |website= aviansystematics.org |publisher= The Trust for Avian Systematics |access-date= 2023-07-26}}</ref> = ''Falco caeruleus''
| type_species_authority = Savigny, 1809
}}

'''''Elanus''''' is a genus of [[bird of prey]] in the [[Elaninae|elanine kite]] subfamily. It was introduced by the French zoologist [[Marie Jules César Savigny|Jules-César Savigny]] in 1809 with the [[black-winged kite]] (''Elanus caeruleus'') as the [[type species]].<ref>{{ cite book | last= Savigny | first=Jules-César | author-link=Marie Jules César Savigny | editor-last= Jomard | editor-first=Edme-François | editor-link=Edme-François Jomard | year=1809 | title=Description de l'Égypte, ou recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Égypte pendant l'expédition de l'armée française, publié par les ordres de sa Majesté l'Empereur Napoléon le Grand | volume=1 | language=French | place=Paris | publisher=L'Imprimerie Impériale | pages=69, 97–98 | url=https://archive.org/stream/DescriptiondelEIFranB#page/n108/mode/1up }}</ref><ref>{{ cite book | editor1-last=Mayr | editor1-first=Ernst | editor1-link=Ernst Mayr | editor2-last=Cottrell | editor2-first=G. William | year=1979 | title=Check-list of Birds of the World | volume=1 | edition=2nd | publisher=Museum of Comparative Zoology | place=Cambridge, Massachusetts | page=290 | url= https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/16108930 }}</ref> The name is from the [[Ancient Greek]] ''{{lang|grc|elanos}}'' for a "kite".<ref>{{cite book | last=Jobling | first=James A. | year=2010| title=The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | url=https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling | publisher=Christopher Helm | location=London | isbn= 978-1-4081-2501-4 | page=[https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling/page/n144 144] }}</ref>

These are white and grey raptors of open country, with black wing markings and a short square tail. They hunt by slowly quartering over mainly [[savanna]] habitat for [[rodent]]s and other small [[mammal]]s, [[bird]]s and [[insect]]s, sometimes hovering like a [[kestrel]]. The primaries and secondaries have soft barbules from the upper surface that help in owl-like silent flight. The genus ''Elanus'' is distinctive in having very small scales covering the foot and on the underside, scutellate scales are found only under the terminal phalanges. The claw lacks a groove on the underside. They also have eyesight suited for crepuscular rodent hunting.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Keirnan |first1=Aubrey |last2=Worthy |first2=Trevor H. |last3=Smaers |first3=Jeroen B. |last4=Mardon |first4=Karine |last5=Iwaniuk |first5=Andrew N. |last6=Weisbecker |first6=Vera |date=2022 |title=Not like night and day: the nocturnal letter-winged kite does not differ from diurnal congeners in orbit or endocast morphology |journal=Royal Society Open Science |language=en |volume=9 |issue=5 |bibcode=2022RSOS....920135K |doi=10.1098/rsos.220135 |issn=2054-5703 |pmc=9128852 |pmid=35620001}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Negro |first1=Juan J. |last2=Pertoldi |first2=Cino |last3=Randi |first3=Ettore |last4=Ferrero |first4=Juan J. |last5=López-Caballero |first5=José M. |last6=Rivera |first6=Domingo |last7=Korpimäki |first7=Erkki |date=2006 |editor-last=Boal |editor-first=Clint |title=Convergent evolution of ''Elanus'' kites and the owls |journal=Journal of Raptor Research |language=en |volume=40 |issue=3 |pages=222–225 |doi=10.3356/0892-1016(2006)40[222:CEOEKA]2.0.CO;2 |issn=0892-1016 |s2cid=85004744 |doi-access=free|hdl=10261/33813 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>  The genus contains four species, all of which hunt small mammals, especially rodents, by hovering in the air while looking for them in over open [[savanna]] habitats.<ref name=ioc>{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | year=2017 | title=New World vultures, Secretarybird, kites, hawks & eagles | work=World Bird List Version 7.3 | url=http://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/raptors/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=31 December 2017 }}</ref> For some time, these species were all included as subspecies of ''Elanus caeruleus'', which has been known as the black-shouldered kite.<ref name="Parkes">{{cite journal |last=Parkes |first=Kenneth C. |year=1958 |title=Specific relationships in the genus ''Elanus'' |url=http://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/condor/v060n02/p0139-p0140.pdf |journal=[[Condor (journal)|Condor]] |volume=60 |issue=2 |pages=139–40 |doi=10.2307/1365270 |jstor=1365270}}</ref><ref name="Clark">{{cite journal |last1=Clark |first1=William S. |last2=Banks |first2=Richard C. |year=1992 |title=The taxonomic status of the White-tailed Kite |url=http://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/wilson/v104n04/p0571-p0579.pdf |journal=[[The Wilson Journal of Ornithology]] |volume=104 |issue=4 |pages=571–79}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/checklistofnorth1983amer/page/103 |title=Check-list of North American Birds |publisher=American Ornithologists' Union |year=1983 |isbn=0-943610-32-X |edition=6th |place=Lawrence, Kansas |page=[https://archive.org/details/checklistofnorth1983amer/page/103 103]}}</ref>

The letter-winged kite breeds colonially and is nocturnal. The other species are both diurnal and crepuscular.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite book |author=Ridgway, Robert |url=https://archive.org/details/manualofnorthame00rid/page/222/mode/1up |title=A manual of North American Birds |publisher=J.B. Lippincott Co. |year=1900 |place=Philadelphia |page=222}}</ref>

{{Species table |genus= Elanus  |authority-name= [[Marie Jules César Savigny|Savigny]] |authority-year=1809 |species-count=four|no-note=y|narrow-percent=75}}

{{Species table/row
|name= [[Black-winged kite]]|binomial=[[Elanus caeruleus]]
|image=File:2011-black-winged-kite.jpg|image-size=180px |image-alt=
|authority-name=[[René Louiche Desfontaines|Desfontaines]]|authority-year= 1789 |authority-not-original=yes
|range= sub-Saharan Africa and tropical Asia
|range-image=File:ElanusCaeruleusIUCNver2019-3.png
|range-image-size=180px
|size=
|habitat=
|hunting=
|iucn-status= LC
|population=
|direction=
|subspecies={{Collapsible list |expand=yes |title=Three subspecies |bullets=on
|''E. c. caeruleus'' (Desfontaines, 1789)
|''E. c. hypoleucus'' (Gould, 1859)
|''E. c. vociferus'' (Latham, 1790) 
}}
}}

{{Species table/row
|name=[[Black-shouldered kite]] |binomial=[[Elanus axillaris]]
|image=File:Black-shouldered Kite Sandy Hollow.jpg|image-size=180px |image-alt=
|authority-name=[[John Latham (ornithologist)|Latham]]|authority-year=1801 |authority-not-original=yes
|range= Australia
|range-image=File:Elanus_axillaris_distribution.svg
|range-image-size=180px
|size=
|habitat=
|hunting=
|iucn-status= LC
|population=
|direction=
|subspecies=
}}

{{Species table/row
|name=[[White-tailed kite]] |binomial=[[Elanus leucurus]]
|image=File:Elanus leucurus -Piraju, Sao Paulo, Brazil-8.jpg|image-size=180px |image-alt=
|authority-name=[[Louis Pierre Vieillot|Vieillot]]|authority-year=1818 |authority-not-original=yes
|range=  southern Texas and eastern Mexico to the Baja California Peninsula and through Central and South America to central Argentina and Chile.
|range-image=File:Elanus_leucurus_range.svg
|range-image-size=180px
|size=
|habitat=
|hunting=
|iucn-status= LC
|population=
|direction=
|subspecies={{Collapsible list |expand=yes |title=Two subspecies |bullets=on
|''E. l. majusculus'' - Bangs & Penard, TE, 1920
|''E. l. leucurus'' - (Vieillot, 1818)
}}
}}

{{Species table/row
|name=[[Letter-winged kite]] |binomial=[[Elanus scriptus]]
|image=File:Letterwinged Kite Perched 2019.jpg|image-size=180px |image-alt=
|authority-name=[[John Gould|Gould]]|authority-year=1842 |authority-not-original=yes
|range=  northeastern South Australia
|range-image=File:Elanus scriptus range map.png
|range-image-size=180px
|size=
|habitat=
|hunting=
|iucn-status= NT
|population=
|direction=
|subspecies={{Collapsible list |expand=yes |title=Two subspecies |bullets=on
|''E. l. majusculus'' - Bangs & Penard, TE, 1920
| ''E. l. leucurus'' - (Vieillot, 1818)
}}
}}

{{Species table/end}}


==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Other sources ==
{{Commons category|Elanus}}
*Ferguson-Lees, Christie, Franklin, Mead and Burton Raptors of the World  {{ISBN|0-7136-8026-1}}

{{Accipitrimorphae|A.|state=collapsed}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q988641}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Elanus| ]]
[[Category:Bird genera]]
[[Category:Taxa named by Marie Jules César Savigny]]