Scientific Name: Elanus axillaris

Medium to large whitish bird. Adults can reach 35 cm, with a 90 cm wing span. The top of the wing is pale grey with black on the shoulder and around the eyes. The wing quills are dark grey. Below the wing is white with a small black patch at the bend of the wing. The bill is black, the eyes are red and the feet are yellow. Immature birds are mottled brown above with a rufous head & breast, dark wings and light underparts.

Did You Know? When a male kite is courting a female he will sometimes dive at her, locking his talons in hers midair, and then together they will spiral downwards.

Habitat: The Black-shouldered Kite usually lives within 400 km of the coast. The bird is most common in the South Eastern States excluding Tasmania, however it is rare in central or northern Australia. Numbers have increased since European settlement.

Diet: Black-shouldered Kites live almost exclusively on mice. They take other suitably-sized creatures when available, including grasshoppers, rats, small reptiles, birds, and even (very rarely) rabbits, but mice and other mouse-sized mammals account for over 90% of their diet. Their influence on mouse populations is probably significant: adults take two or three mice a day each if they can, and on one occasion a male was observed bringing no less than 14 mice to a nest of well-advanced fledglings within an hour.

Reproduction: The breeding season peaks in Spring when the birds build a deep compact platform composed of sticks and lined with leaves in a eucalypt or other tall tree. The Black-shouldered Kite often uses a deserted nest of a crow or magpie. They lay three or four oval whitish eggs, blotched with reddish brown.