| Common Name : | Black kite, Fork-tailed Kite. |
| Binomial Name : | Milvus migrans |
| Family : | Accipitridae |
| Bengali Name : | Bhubon chil ( |
| Photo Taken : | Bangladesh |
Most commonly seen kite from Bangladesh is the Black kite. This medium sized raptor is widely available at anywhere from our country Bangladesh, and a residential bird here. We use to call this bird as Bhuban chil, Badami chil, etc. They are widely found from anywhere of the world, except the American continents. Binomial name of the bird is Milvus migrans and belongs to the family Accipitridae.
Black kite (Milvus migrans) is a medium sized raptor that is seen patrolling the air for the foods. They often perch on the high branches of the trees. They are known for the gregarious nature and seen in a large group (sometimes more than thousands). During my observation at the Keranganj I have seen two groups at two different areas where it was probably around 200-300 Black kites in each groups. Most of those raptors were patrolling over the sky, and only few were standing on the ground. It was unbelievable!
This medium sized raptors are reddish brown in color with having lot of light brown colored spot. Both male and female are similar but the females are slightly larger than the males. Under side of the tail of Black kite (Milvus migrans) is having a stripe of white and black. The tails are slightly forked during the flight where as the Brahmini kites are having short and round shaped tails. This feature helps slightly to identify the juveniles from the species (as they are confusing at that stage). Another distinct thing is the finger like feathers (having space between the feathers) at the wings during the flight.
The adult Black kite (Milvus migrans) are having brown to grayish head, feet are yellow, and the claws are black (may be it is different for the juveniles! cause few of my birds are having grey feet in this article). For the matures, the beak of the bird is black and having yellowish waxy base. While patrolling over the sky they produce a high pitched shrilling sound which can be heard from a far distance.
These birds prefer to live near the river, canal, or wetlands. It helps them to find fishes from there easily along with fresh water. Apart from the fishes, they often prey on the frogs, lizards, dead or wounded other birds, etc. They make their nest on the trees above 8-15 meter height. They mainly make the nest by using the soft but thick materials along with human droppings like polythene, plastics, etc. As these birds are gregarious, it is often found the nests in close proximity with another. March to the May is their breeding season and the clutch gets 2-4 eggs.
Notice the yellow feet and beak, it's an adult kite.
Being a raptor, and remaining at the top of its food-chain, Black kite (Milvus migrans) hardly has any predator. This is probably a reason to have an abundant amount Black kites in this world (nearly 6 million). But these days their count is decreasing. In Bangladesh people use to kill this bird as they often looks for the fish from the fisheries. Also sometimes placing the nets over the fields (to protect from birds) often catch these raptors. That's why in our country they are having in a threat despite of having a large number.
A Black kite is taking care of the tail.
Although the Black kites are a residential bird in Bangladesh, but they are also migratory at other region. They use to visit the warm place during their winter. In Bangladesh few of such migratory raptors visit during that time too.
It is eating a fish from its claw.
A group of Black kites.
Not sure what it is doing on the ground.
A nest of the Black kite.
Photos of Black kite (Milvus migrans) were taken from Bangladesh as follows:
1) October 2014: Mirpur Botanical Garden.
2) December 2014: Keraniganj, Dhaka.
3) March 2015: Uttara sector 18, Dhaka.
4) March 2015: Romna park, Dhaka.
This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://icbird.blogspot.com/
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