35) BLACK WINGED KITE (Elanus caeruleus)

060816 Black Winged Kite Vanvihar 

Black Winged Kite (Elanus caeruleus)

I saw the Black Winged Kite very often perched on the roadside wire while travelling in the car.  

I tried to photograph it a couple of times but did not get good photographs of the bird.  

On the other day, while walking inside the Vanvihar National Park, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh saw this bird perched on the roadside wire.

It posed well and gave me enough time to click photographs to my heart content.

060816 Black Winged Kite Vanvihar 

The kite has forward facing eyes with red irises. I observed that it was able to turn its head almost 270 degrees. 

As a result, when I focussed my camera lens at it, sometimes I saw back of its head instead of its face.

The kite is ashy grey above, white below, with a black line above the eyes and black patches on shoulders. 

The long falcon-like wings extend beyond the short, square white tail when the bird is perched.

Generally, it can be observed perched on roadside wires very often. It keeps to a favoured pole or tree top very often.

060816 Black Winged Kite Vanvihar 

The black-winged kite is a widespread resident in India. It primarily inhabits open grasslands with scattered bushes and small trees and semi-deserts areas. But it avoids dense jungle as well as arid plain.

The black-winged kite feeds on small mammals like rodents, lizards, grasshoppers, crickets and other large insects.

060816 Black Winged Kite Vanvihar 

Reference: 

1) Birds of the Indian Subcontinent by Richard Grimmett, Carol Inskipp and Tim Inskipp

2) Birds of South Asia, The Ripley guide by Pamela C. Rasmussen and John C Anderton

3) The Book of Indian Birds by Salim Ali

4) The Wikipedia