>Leptodon forbesi (White-collared Kite)

White-collared Kite

White-collared Kite
Conservation status
Critically Endangered (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Accipitriformes
Family:	Accipitridae
Genus:	Leptodon
Species:	L. forbesi
Binomial name
Leptodon forbesi (Swann, 1922)
White-collared Kite range

The White-collared Kite, Leptodon forbesi, is a South American raptor. It breeds in north eastern Brazil.

The White-collared Kite is 50 cm in length. The adult has a grey head with white hindneck, black upperparts, white underparts, and a grey tail with a very broad, black subterminal band and whitish tip. It is very similar to the more southerly distributed Grey-headed Kite (L. cayanensis) and was often merged into it as a subspecies.

This species is classified as Critically Endangered. There have been very few sightings if it, and nothing is known of its feeding or breeding ecology. The areas in which it has been sighted, in coastal Alagoas and Pernambuco, has been subject to massive deforestation. The current population is estimated at some 50 pairs.

The binomial commemorates the British zoologist William Alexander Forbes.

>Leptodon cayanensis (Gray-headed Kite)

Gray-headed Kite

Gray-headed Kite
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Accipitriformes
Family:	Accipitridae
Genus:	Leptodon
Species:	L. cayanensis
Binomial name
Leptodon cayanensis (Latham, 1790)

The Gray-headed Kite, Leptodon cayanensis, is a raptor found in open woodland and swamp forests. It shares the genus Leptodon with the extremely rare White-collared Kite. It breeds from eastern Mexico and Trinidad south to Peru, Bolivia,Brazil and northern Argentina.

The nest is made of sticks lined with grass and is built high in a tree. The clutch is one or two white eggs, purplish at one end and spotted brown.

The Gray-headed Kite is 46–53 cm in length and weighs 410-605 g. The adult has a grey head, black upperparts, white underparts, and a black tail with two or three white bars. The bill is blue and the legs grey. The flight is a deliberate flap-flap-glide.

Immature birds have two colour morphs; the light phase is similar to the adult, but has a white head and neck, with a black crown and eyestripe, black bill and yellow legs. The dark phase has a blackish head, neck and upperparts, and dark-streaked buff underparts.

The Gray-headed Kite feeds mainly on reptiles, but also takes frogs and large insects. It usually sits on an open high perch from which it swoops on its prey. The call is a mewling keow.

>>Genus Leptodon

Genus Leptodon

Leptodon
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Accipitriformes
Family:	Accipitridae
Genus:	Leptodon Sundevall, 1836
species
L. cayanensis L. forbesi

Leptodon is a genus of birds of prey. Its two members are similar, with a grey head, black upperparts and white underparts. They are:

• Grey-headed Kite, Leptodon cayanensis
• White-collared Kite, Leptodon forbesi

Grey-headed Kite is a widespread species, breeding from eastern Mexico and Trinidad south to Peru, Bolivia and northern Argentina. However, White-collared Kite is restricted to northeastern Brazil, and is classified as Critically Endangered.