What to Know About Black-shouldered Kites in Uganda?

The Black-Shouldered Kite in Uganda is one of the African birds in Uganda seen during birding safaris in Uganda. The black-shouldered kite is a small raptor in the Accipitridae family measuring about 35cm in length with a wingspan of 80–100 cm.

It has a life expectancy of 6 years in the wild. In Uganda, the black shouldered kite is located in Murchison falls national park.

How Does the Black-shouldered Kite in Uganda Look Like?

The Black-shouldered Kite is a small, grey and white raptor with a black shoulder. The upperparts are bluish grey, with black wing coverts which appear as a distinctive, black shoulder patch.

The underparts are white. There is a small black mask around the eye. Young birds have a reddish-brown wash on the head and breast and the feathers of the upperparts are tipped white.

The bill is short with a sharp, hooked tip to the upper mandible. The bill is black, while the feet and legs, and the cere (skin at the base of the bill) are bright yellow.

The eye is dark red in adult and brownish-orange in immature birds.

How Does the Black-shouldered kite in Uganda Sing and Make Calls?

The black-shouldered kite is generally silent, except in the breeding season when its weak calls, can be persistent.

It mainly utters a clear whistled “chee, chee, chee” call in flight and while hovering, or a hoarse wheezing skree-ah when perched.

The call has been confused with that of a silver gull.  A short high whistle is the prime contact call between a pair, while a harsh scraping call is the most common call used by the female and large young, and brooding females call to their young with a deep, soft, frog-like croak.

How Does the Black-shouldered Kite in Uganda Feed?

The black-shouldered kites live almost solely on mice, and has become a specialist predator of house mice, often following outbreaks of mouse plagues in rural areas.

It takes other suitably-sized creatures when available, including grasshoppers, rats, small reptiles, birds, and even (very rarely) rabbits, but mice and other mouse-sized mammals account for over 90% of its diet.

Its influence on mouse populations is probably significant; adults take two or three mice a day each if they can, around a thousand mice a year.

Like other elanid kites, the black-shouldered kite hunts by quartering grasslands for small creatures. This can be from a perch, but more often by hovering in mid-air.

It prefers to hunt during the day, particularly in the early morning and mid to late afternoon, and occasionally hunts in pairs.

Its hunting pattern, outside breeding periods and periods of abundant prey, have distinct crepuscular peaks, perhaps corresponding to mouse activity.

When hunting the kite hovers with its body hanging almost vertically, and its head into the wind.

When a prey is spotted, the kite drops silently onto it, feet-first with wings raised high; sometimes in one long drop to ground level, more often in two or more stages, with hovering pauses at intermediate heights.

Prey is seized in the talons and about 75% of attacks are successful. Prey can either be eaten in flight or carried back to a perch. Birds will have a favored feeding perch, beneath which accumulate piles of pellets.

How does the black-shouldered kite in Uganda Nest?

The nest, which is built by the male and female birds, is a small platform of sticks lined with grass, about 30cm in diameter. This is placed near the top of a tree in a branch.

How Does the Black-shouldered Kite in Uganda Breed?

They are monogamous birds with the female selecting her mate based on his territory. Breeding occurs all year round and peaks in the dry seasons.

During the breeding season black-shouldered kite perform impressive aerial displays. During a typical display one bird will bend towards another which rolls over and presents its claws.

The couple will then do cart-wheels in the air – quite lovely to behold! A series of weak calls are emitted by the birds during this display.

How Does the Black-shouldered Kite in Uganda Reproduce?

The 2 to 6 eggs laid are incubated by the female for a period of 26 – 33 days and then are cared for by the mother whilst the father hunts for food which he then passes on to the female for feeding to their chicks.

They are taught to fly after when they are about a month old and the chicks become independent and leave the nest after a further 40 – 70 days.