![]() They roost communally on large and isolated trees and as many as 600 have been seen at one location. When fishing over water, they may sometimes land in the water, but manage to swim and take off without much trouble. Young birds may indulge in play behaviour, dropping leaves and attempting to catch them in the air. It also eats rice or cooked food left as an offering in India. A rare instance of a bird feeding on honey at the hive of Apis florea has been recorded. Brahminy kites have even been recorded taking advantage of Irrawaddy dolphins herding fish to the surface, in the Mekong River. They may also indulge in kleptoparasitism and attempt to steal prey from other birds. It is primarily a scavenger, feeding mainly on dead fish and crabs, especially in wetlands and marshland, but occasionally hunts live prey such as hares and bats. The incubation period is about 26 to 27 days. Both parents take part in nest building and feeding, but likely only the female incubates. A clutch of two dull-white or bluish-white oval eggs measuring 52 x 41 mm is laid. In some rare instances, they have been seen to nest on the ground under trees. They show considerable site fidelity nesting in the same area year after year. 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. In southern and eastern Australia, it is August to October, and April to June in the north and west. The breeding season in South Asia is from December to April. īrahminy kite eating, Kabini Reservoir, India 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. The pale patch on the underwing carpal region is of a squarish shape and separated from Buteo buzzards. 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 brahminy kite is distinctive and contrastingly coloured, with chestnut plumage except for the white head and breast and black wing tips. Haliastur indus flavirostris Condon & Amadon, 1954 – Solomon Islands.Haliastur indus girrenera (Vieillot, 1822) – New Guinea, Bismarck Archipelago and north Australia.Haliastur indus intermedius Blyth, 1865 – Malay Peninsula, Greater and Lesser Sunda Islands, Sulawesi and the Philippines.Haliastur indus indus (Boddaert, 1783) – South Asia.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. 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. 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. The brahminy kite was included by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. He used the French name L'aigle de Pondichery. We will move him out of the hospital into a larger enclosure very soon.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 had been fed fresh fish, chicken and pork, however his wing muscles are in a bad shape, it will take sometime before he gets the strength back to properly fly. Amazingly his body condition is not as bad as you would as expect after spending years in a tony cage. The cage he had been kept in was clearly not suitable. Ma Ruay, as the previous owner had named him, is around 3 years old. The population is declining, especially in Southeast Asia, owing to loss of habitat, persecution, over-use of pesticides and, possibly, increased human hygiene resulting in reduction of available scraps. This does not mean that this animal is not endangered as its population is still decreasing but is classified as Least Concern due to its extremely large home range. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species of threatened species lists the Brahminy kite as Least Concern (LC). He spent the next 2 years in a dog carry cage until the owner saw sense and brought him to us. We were informed by the owner that they had found the kite on the ground close to their house when he was a chick and had hand reared him. A few days ago a brahminy kite (Haliastur indus) was brought into the WFFT Wildlife Rescue Centre after the owners felt he needed a more suitable home.
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