White-collared Kite
Leptodon forbesi
Rather large raptor, mostly black above and white below. Note the mostly white tail with a broad dark band, and the black-and-white bars on the flight feathers. A range-restricted species of the northeast Atlantic forest. Often attracts attention by its call, a series of repetitive “kua-kua-kua-kua” notes given in a spectacular display flight. Adults of the similar Gray-headed Kite have a gray throat, dark gray back of neck, barred black-and-white underwing, and two dark bars on the tail. Immatures have a different underwing and tail pattern.
Identification
The white-collared kite is about 50 cm (20 in) long and weighs 550 to 580 g (1.2 to 1.3 lb). Adults usually have a grey head with a white hindneck, but sometimes only the crown is gray and in other individuals the entire head is white. They have black upperparts, white underparts, and a black tail with a whitish tip and a broad ash-white band in the middle (or two white bands with a narrow black one between them). Their scapulars, secondaries, and inner primaries have broad white tips that are typically reduced or lost through wear.
Taxonomy
Until the early 2000s the white-collared kite was considered an aberrant plumage of the grey-headed kite (L. cayanensis) but morphological and other evidence strongly support its treatment as a full species. It is monotypic.<p>The species' specific epithet commemorates the British zoologist William Alexander Forbes.[citation needed]
- Scientific name
- Leptodon forbesi
- Authority
- (Swann, 1922)
- Order
- Accipitriformes
- Family
- Accipitridae
- Genus
- Leptodon
Range and habitat
The white-collared kite is found only in parts of four states of northeastern Brazil: eastern Paraíba, eastern Pernambuco, eastern Alagoas, and southern Sergipe. It primarily inhabits the Atlantic forest though it has been spotted over mangroves. In elevation it occurs from near sea level to 600 m (2,000 ft).
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The white-collared kite is mostly sedentary but has been seen flying over sugar cane fields between isolated forest patches.<p>Essentially nothing is known about the white-collared kite's hunting methods or diet. During the one documented observation the bird swooped from a perch, caught prey thought to be an insect, and returned to the same perch.<p>The white-collared kite's breeding biology is almost unknown. Single birds and pairs have been observed making fluttering "butterfly" display flights between October and January, and an active nest was found in April.<p>The white-collared kite makes a flight call "kua-kua-kua-kua" and "a cat-like 'eeeAAW'" during the display flight.
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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A small, active warbler of lowland and mid-elevation forest understory that is green above and gray below with a noticeable pale eyebrow. Similar to migratory warblers, especially Willow Warbler, but note Uganda Woodland-Warbler’s grayer underparts, paler throat, and yellowish vent. Song is a fast, jumbled mix of high-pitched notes.
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Chunky rainforest bird with emerald green upperparts, black spot below the dark red eye, and green-olive underparts with extensive pale spotting. Inhabits the Wet Tropics of northern Queensland (Cairns region), thus does not overlap with similar Green Catbird. Forages mostly in middle and upper story of the rainforest. Compare female and juvenile Satin Bowerbird (with blue eye, darker bill). Spotted Catbird is well known for its characteristic catlike yowling call.
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