It is locally known as Kapassi (Hindi, Bengali).
It is the size of approximately a house crow. A dainty hawk , ash grey above , white below with a black line above the eyes .The black patches on the shoulder are conspicuous at rest as well as in flight.When closed , the wing tips extend beyond the short,square white tail.
It is distributed patchily throughout the Indian union from the base of the Himalayas,and in Nepal,Bangaladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.It is resident and locally migratory.
Its habits are rather crepuscular, but also active during daytime.It inhabits well wooded country and cultivation,and also thin decidious forests and grasslands.It avoids dense jungles as well as arid plains.It keeps to a favoured locality, perched on the same pole or tree-top from day to day , whence to keep a lookout and pounce upon the crawling prey.It has a sluggish , slow flight with deliberate wing strokes alternated with short glides. It cocks its tail from time to time , jerking it up and down between the drooping wings.It hovers in mid-air to scan the ground.At the site of a prey it parachutes down in steps, with motionless wings raised vertically above the body till when only a few feet above closes them and drops on the quarry , bearing it away in its claws.Its food consists of locusts,crickets,mice,lizards etc.
Call : A shrill squeal , seldom heard.
Nesting : Nesting season is practically all the year.Its nest is loose and untidy like that of a crow.It is made up of twigs and some-times lined up with roots and grass in small trees. Eggs are 3 to 4 , yellowish-white , densely blotched with brownish red.Both sexes share in domestic duties.
This Black Shouldered Kite has been photographed at the Rock point , near Rihand nagar,Bijpur, Dist-Sonbhadra , UP , India
No comments:
Post a Comment