Brahminy Kite - Haliastur indus

Common Name :	Brahminy Kite.
Binomial Name :	Haliastur indus
Family :	Accipitridae
Bengali Name :	Shonkho Chil (শঙ্খ চিল).
Photo Taken :	Bangladesh

Our today's bird is a very common one from our Indian subcontinent. Once upon a time it was vastly seen patrolling the sky over the wetlands. But these days their count has diminished unfortunately. This is Brahminy Kite, locally known as Shonkho Chil. Scientific name is Haliastur indus and it belongs to the bird family Accipitridae.

Adult Brahminy Kites (Haliastur indus) are medium sized raptor (bird of prey), adults are having a distinctive color that makes it more beautiful. The head, neck, chest/throat, upper part of the belly are bright white in color and the other parts are striking chestnut (dark brown) in color. But the juvenile one is not as easy to identify (as it can be confused with the Black Kites) as it doesn't have such distinctive white and chestnut color on it. The tail of Brahminy Kite (Haliastur indus) is shorter and round in shape, by which easily it can be distinguished from its close relative Black Kite. The adult has a lime yellow colored beak and circular nostril. Both sexes of this bird are same but the females are slightly larger than that of male.

Similar to other raptors the Brahminy Kites (Haliastur indus) are having a very sharp eyes that can help them to locate its food from high on sky during patrolling. It mainly looks for the dead fishes around the wetlands. Sometimes it snatches foods from the other birds. In our villages in Bangladesh, it uses to steal the baby chickens from its mother. Villagers were anxious about the sudden strike from those raptors. But those days are gone by as their numbers have decreased from this country.

From my observation the main reason behind this is the population growth in Bangladesh. We have expanded our houses and occupied their lands. They do not have too much free space for building nest, scouting foods, and feeding their babies. Hence they are now an engendered species from our country.

From the online resources I came to know that this bird makes its nest on the high branches of a tree. They use to use the same nest year after year. Female lays 2 eggs. Both the parents use to feed the babies but only the female incubates and it takes around a month to complete.

A Brahminy Kite (Haliastur indus) perched on a tamarind tree.

Photos of Brahminy Kite (Haliastur indus) were taken from the following locations of Bangladesh:
1. October 2014: Brahmanbaria.
2. February 2015: Rupganj, Narayanganj.


This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://icbird.blogspot.com/