• Looking for ready-made food is among the black kite’s quiddities, one which overshadows its capacity for hunting. The bird would not shy away from a hunting opportunity when it arrives on a platter.
  • It is known to take rodents and also reptiles, its ability for “aerial acrobatics” particularly assisting it while it hunts down a scurrying rodent.
  • “The shape of its tail, which is forked, enables the black kite to manipulate itself efficiently in the air and maneuver easily, an advantage shared by the drongo,” says ornithologist V Santharam.
  • Sometime ago, Madras Naturalists’ Society honorary secretary G Vijaya Kumar shared an observation about the black kite with this writer: How he watched the bird successfully swoop down on a live fish in the beach waters. Santharam chips in with an account of how he has similarly seen the black kite pick up floating fish.