Accipitridae
Black-shouldered Kite
Elanus axillaris
The Hovering Lantern
- Length
- 35 cm
- Wingspan
- 85 cm
- Family
- Accipitridae
Identification
A small, pale kite of almost pure white below, pearl-grey above, with bold black shoulder patches and a staring red eye. In the air they hover as if pinned to a nail in the sky, tail down, facing the wind. The closest thing the Peninsula paddocks have to a lantern that hunts.
Distinctive marks
- White head and underparts
- Pale grey back
- Black shoulder patches
- Red eye
- Hovers with a hanging tail
Behaviour & ecology
They work grasslands, ovals, and roadside verges for mice, hanging in the air, then dropping on cupped wings. Often seen on a power pole at dusk. Pairs are quietly territorial; a hovering bird is a statement of ownership.
Voice
A short, whistled 'chep' and a harsher chatter when two birds meet.
On the Peninsula
Open farmland, coastal grassland, and the larger Peninsula ovals. Increasingly seen over suburban edges.
Season
Year-round. Hovering is most obvious on still, cool mornings.
Diet
Mice and other small mammals, taken from the hover.
Conservation
Secure. A beneficiary of open grassy country and a good mouse year.
Lore & resonance
They do not stoop so much as decide. The hover is a held breath. When it ends, something in the grass has been named.
If you would attract them
Leave a paddock or a long verge unpoisoned. Rodenticide in a shed will find this bird. A high dead limb is the rest of the invitation.
