All About The Birds: The White Tailed Kite (Elanus Leucurus)
My first spotting of this bird was at the Yolo Bypass auto loop, right off the I-80 in between Davis and Sacramento. I was completely enamored by the sight of a bird flying high, and hovering perfectly in place on a day with a moderate breeze (probably around 14-16mph). I’ve never seen a bird hover with so much control, apart from a hummingbird, so it was hypnotizing to see it soar, and come to a complete stop mid-flight. What’s more is it’s diving form (not captured here) was awesome—it spreads its wings completely at a pitched angle, descended heaven-like, and did so without flap or falter. It was like watching a single feather elegantly falling in slow motion.
White Tailed Kite (Elanus Leucurus) slow motion showcase; flight and hovering.
This species is able to hover by opposing the direction of wind, and matching its speed. While hovering, the bird surveys from a height as high as 80 feet, for prey unknowing of its fate. Once the meal is spotted, the bird dives for the kill.
It’s a spotting such as this that explains why I’ve kept birding as one of my favorite pastimes in the past year.
Hovering demonstration using a high burst frame rate shooting mode, and in a locked off composition.
Elanus Leucurus is the scientific name for the White Tailed Kite species. Elanus is latin for “kite,” while Leucurus is “white tail” (leuc being “white,” and urus being “tail”). To my surprise, I found out that the toy kite was named as such due to its flight/hovering being similar to the birds within the Elanus genus. They are commonly found throughout central California, especially in low grass and wetlands. They were reported to be on the verge of extinction in the 1930’s due to a number of reasons, with environmental change and hunting being some of the driving factors. It was between the 1940’s and 1970’s where the populations began to rehabilitate, as result from hunting limitations and agricultural development attracting prey. Though they were able to outgrow their verge of extinction status, it has been reported that their population has been on the decline since the 1980’s.
Roosting White Tailed Kite — Image provided by Unsplash user @santonii
They feature crimson-red eyes, and bright yellow talons, both of which are contrasted by its white, grey, and black plumage. One feature that is striking is that on the underside of the wings, two black dots can be found at the wrist. Don’t they look like eyes? I can’t imagine why the have such features, but I can’t help but think that they may be indicators for prey and predators. On one hand it seems that they can ward off predators that are on the ground, such as snakes and felines. On the other hand, would it be camouflage that allows them to dive unseen, or fly unspotted? I haven’t been able to find out why such feature of speciation has occurred—or if it is significant in its speciation at all.
Sources:
Appearance of the species: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-tailed_Kite/id
History of the species: http://www.prbo.org/calpif/htmldocs/species/grassland/wtkiacct.html
Call of the species: https://ebird.org/media/catalog?taxonCode=whtkit&sort=rating_rank_desc&mediaType=a®ionCode=