>>>Subfamily Elaninae >>Genus Elanus

Elanus

Black-winged Kites
Black-winged Kite
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Accipitriformes
Family:	Accipitridae
Genus:	Elanus Savigny, 1809
species
E. caeruleus E. axillaris E. leucurus E. scriptus

Black-winged Kites is a genus of bird of prey in the elanid kite subfamily. It consists of four species.

• Black-winged Kite, Elanus caeruleus
• Black-shouldered Kite, Elanus axillaris
• White-tailed Kite, Elanus leucurus
• Letter-winged Kite, Elanus scriptus

The first three species above were considered conspecific as subspecies of the Black-shouldered Kite.

These are white and grey raptors of open country, with black shoulder markings and a short square tail. They hunt by slowly quartering the habitat for rodents and other small mammals, birds and insects, sometimes hovering like a kestrel.