The plumbeous kite (''Ictinia plumbea'') is a

bird of prey Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and other smaller birds). In addition to speed and strength, these predat ...

in the family Accipitridae that is resident in much of northern South America. It is migratory in the northern part of its range which extends north to Mexico. It feeds on insects which it catches either from a perch or while in flight.

Taxonomy

The plumbeous kite was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

's '' Systema Naturae''. He placed it with the eagles, hawks and relatives in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

'' Falco'' and coined the binomial name ''Falco plumbeus''. Gmelin based his description on the "spotted-tailed hawk" that had been described in 1781 by the English ornithologist John Latham from a specimen from Cayenne in a private collection in London. It is now placed with the Mississippi kite in the genus ''

Ictinia ''Ictinia'' is a genus of birds in the family Accipitridae. It contains two species that are native to the Americas. Taxonomy and species The genus ''Ictinia'' was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot to acc ...

'' that was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist

Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot Louis Pierre Vieillot (10 May 1748, Yvetot – 24 August 1830, Sotteville-lès-Rouen) was a French ornithologist. Vieillot is the author of the first scientific descriptions and Linnaean names of a number of birds, including species he collec ...

. The genus name is from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

''iktinos'' for a kite. The specific epithet ''plumbea'' is from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''plumbeus'' meaning "leaded", "plumbeous" or "lead-coloured". The species is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

: no subspecies are recognised. Plumbeous Kite (Ictinia plumbea)

Description

The plumbeous kite is in overall length. The male weighs , the slightly larger female . It has long, pointed wings. Adults are mainly slate-grey, with a paler head and underparts. The short black tail has 2-3 white bands on the undersurface. The eyes are red and the legs are orange. In flight, this kite shows a rufous primary patch. Sexes are similar, but immature birds have white-streaked grey upperparts and dark-streaked whitish underparts. They lack the rufous wing patch. The call of plumbeous kite is a whistled ''si-see-oo''. The plumbeous kite is darker gray overall than the strongly migratory Mississippi kite which has white patches on the secondaries and lacks the rufous patches on the primaries.

Distribution and habitat

The plumbeous kite is a bird of lowland forest and savannah. It breeds in the

Neotropical realm The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In biogeo ...

, from eastern Mexico to Peru, Bolivia and Argentina. It also breeds on

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

. Birds in the north and south of the breeding range, including the populations in

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

, Trinidad, Venezuela and Colombia, and southern Argentina and Brazil, are migratory, moving into tropical

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

in the northern winter.

Behavior and ecology

It is not particularly gregarious, although it is sometimes seen in flocks during migration.

Breeding

The deep stick nest is placed high in a tree, sometimes in a mangrove swamp over water. The clutch is usually a single egg but occasionally two eggs are laid. They are either white of very pale blue and measure about . The eggs are incubated for 32-33 days by both parents. The chicks are covered with white down and are fed by both parents. The young fledge when around a month of age.

Food and feeding

The plumbeous kite catches insects either in flight or from a perch. It will also occasionally prey on frogs, lizards, bats, birds and snakes.https://www.peregrinefund.org/explore-raptors-species/kites/plumbeous-kite

References

External links

Plumbeous Kite videos
on the Internet Bird Collection

VIREO ttp://vireo.acnatsci.org/species_image.php?species=Ictinia+plumbea Photo-High Res {{Taxonbar, from=Q1264502

plumbeous kite The plumbeous kite (''Ictinia plumbea'') is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae that is resident in much of northern South America. It is migratory in the northern part of its range which extends north to Mexico. It feeds on insects which it ...

Birds of Central America Birds of prey of South America category:Higher-level bird taxa restricted to the Neotropics