The Black Kite is dark brown or black. Its eye color is brown or yellowish brown. It can weigh up to 2 pounds. Its wingspan is up to 5 feet wide. Its body size is 47 cm, to 55 cm. The Black kite adaptation is that they can swoop down and use its long claws to catch its prey. The Oakland zoo said that “their large wing area and light body allow them to soar earlier in the morning than most birds; they are usually the first flying scavenger at a "kill"”. 

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 Black kites live in Europe, Africa, Middle East, India and southern Asia east to South China, New Guinea, and Australia. Black kites can live in rubbish dumps. Study shows that humans are killing the Kites by shooting them and by poisoning them with toxic chemicals found in the air.

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In Australia, over 3000 dead black kites have been seen in one “piggery”. The Oakland zoo says “in some areas the black kite is thought to be a threat to poultry and small game birds. The black kites love to eat small insects, fishes, frogs, small birds, and small mammals. Black kites cannot kill mammals larger than a rat. They also love to eat the fruit that falls out of an oil palm tree. They compete for their food with other birds of prey. The black kite may be eaten by a pack of wolfs or by humans. The only way the black kite evades being eaten is by flying away.

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Some interesting facts about a black kite are that their nests are built in trees at 15 to 100ft high. The nests are about “18 to 24 inchess” diameter (When you look down into it.) Black kites use all types of stuff; almost anything that is available to build their nest. The eggs do not hatch for 38 days. Only the female sits on the nest while the male hunts for the food for the females. Forty-two days after the eggs hatch the chicks can fly and they are on there own.

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Author: Alonso G

Published: 02/2007

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Bibliography: http://www.oaklandzoo.org/atoz/azblkite.html> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_kite> Weidensaul, Scott. Raptors. New York: Lyons and Burford, 1996.

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Photo Credit: Ferdinand Grassmann 13:06, 20 June 2005 . . Farbenfreude (Talk | contribs) . . 1036×691 (281,802 bytes) (* Beschreibung: Schwarzmilan (''Milvus migrans'') * Quelle: selbst fotografiert am 19. Juni 2005 * Fotograf: Ferdinand Grassmann