Species profile
Black Kite
Milvus migrans
Quick answer
occurs in almost the entire Old Word and Australasia, and the nominotypical subspecies is highly migratory. It breeds in continental Europe, northwestern Africa and western Asia, and overwinters mainly south of the Sahara in Africa (Ferguson-Lees & Christie, 2001). Vagrant individuals have been recorded in New Zealand and on Hawaiian islands in the Pacific. One adult individual was recently recorded in the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago, 1,100 km away from the Brazilian coast, between April 16 th and May 17 th 2014, probably by following winds from northwestern Africa (Nunes et al., 2015) that are tangent to the main flyway used by this species when moving between the wintering and breeding areas in western Europe (Sergio et al., 2014).
- Scientific name
- Milvus migrans
- Family
- Accipitridae
- Order
- Accipitriformes
- Genus
- Milvus
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
Recording Black Kite in your journal
When you see this bird, log the sighting with the date, the place and any photos. If it's your first, Feather Journal marks it as a lifer and adds it to your life list automatically — no spreadsheet, no re-typing.
Related species in Accipitridae
- African Cuckoo-hawk (Aviceda cuculoides)
- African Fish-eagle (Haliaeetus vocifer)
- African Goshawk (Accipiter tachiro)
- African Harrier-hawk (Polyboroides typus)
- African Hawk-Eagle (Aquila spilogaster)
- African Marsh-harrier (Circus ranivorus)
- Amplibuteo concordatus (Amplibuteo concordatus)
- Amplibuteo hibbardi (Amplibuteo hibbardi)