The yellow-billed kite (''Milvus aegyptius'') is the

Afrotropic The Afrotropical realm is one of Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Africa south of the Sahara Desert, the majority of the Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, southern Iran and extreme southwestern Pakistan, and the island ...

counterpart of the

black kite The black kite (''Milvus migrans'') is a medium-sized bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors. It is thought to be the world's most abundant species of Accipitridae, although some populations have ...

(''Milvus migrans''), of which it is most often considered a

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics ( morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all specie ...

. However, DNA studies suggest that the yellow-billed kite differs significantly from black kites in the

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelag ...

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English ter ...

, and should be considered as a separate,

allopatric Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...

species.

Taxonomy

The yellow-billed kite was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist

Johann Friedrich Gmelin , fields = , workplaces = University of GöttingenUniversity of Tübingen , alma_mater = University of Tübingen , doctoral_advisor = Philipp Friedrich Gmelin Ferdinand Christoph Oetinger , academic_advisors = , docto ...

in his revised and expanded edition of

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

's ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial ...

''. He specified that the bird was found in Egypt, placed it with the eagles, falcons 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 In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bo ...

''Falco aegyptius''. Unusually Gmelin did not cite a source for his information. The yellow-billed kite is now one of three kites placed in the genus '' Milvus'' that was introduced in 1799 by the French naturalist

Bernard Germain de Lacépède Bernard-Germain-Étienne de La Ville-sur-Illon, comte de Lacépède or La Cépède (; 26 December 17566 October 1825) was a French naturalist and an active freemason. He is known for his contribution to the Comte de Buffon's great work, the ' ...

. There are two subspecies: ''M. a. parasitus'' ( Daudin, 1800) , found throughout most of

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...

(including

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Afric ...

), except for the

Congo Basin The Congo Basin (french: Bassin du Congo) is the sedimentary basin of the Congo River. The Congo Basin is located in Central Africa, in a region known as west equatorial Africa. The Congo Basin region is sometimes known simply as the Congo. It con ...

(with intra-African migrations) and ''M. a. aegyptius'' (Gmelin, JF, 1788) of Egypt, south-west

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Pl ...

and the

Horn of Africa The Horn of Africa (HoA), also known as the Somali Peninsula, is a large peninsula and geopolitical region in East Africa.Robert Stock, ''Africa South of the Sahara, Second Edition: A Geographical Interpretation'', (The Guilford Press; 2004 ...

(which disperses south during the non-breeding season). The yellow-billed kite was formerly considered as

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organis ...

with the

(''Milvus migrans''). A

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study published in 2005 compared DNA sequences of two

mitochondrial A mitochondrion (; ) is an organelle found in the cells of most Eukaryotes, such as animals, plants and fungi. Mitochondria have a double membrane structure and use aerobic respiration to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is used t ...

loci of the red, black and yellow-billed kites. It found that there was significant divergence between the three species, but unexpectedly, the two clades corresponding to the ''M. a. aegyptius'' and ''M. a. parasitus'' subspecies did not form a

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gr ...

group.

Description

As suggested by its name, the yellow-billed kite is easily recognized by its entirely yellow bill, unlike that of the

(which is present in Africa as a visitor during the North Hemisphere winter). However, immature yellow-billed kites resemble the black kites of the corresponding age.

Habitat and feeding

They are found in almost all habitats, including parks in suburbia, but rare in the arid

Namib The Namib ( ; pt, Namibe) is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. The name is of Khoekhoegowab origin and means "vast place". According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Nami ...

and

Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi-desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its ex ...

. They feed on a wide range of small vertebrates and insects, much of which is scavenged.

Status

It is mostly an intra-African breeding migrant, present in

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number o ...

July–March and sometimes as late as May. It is generally common. There are no threats to this species as stated by the IUCN.

Gallery

File:Milvus aegyptius -Tsimbazaza Zoo, Madagascar-8a.jpg, At

Tsimbazaza Zoo The Botanical and Zoological Garden of Tsimbazaza, short Tsimbazaza Zoo (in French ''Parc Botanique et Zoologique de Tsimbazaza'' or ''PBZT'') is a zoological and botanical garden in the neighbourhood of Tsimbazaza in Antananarivo, Madagascar, l ...

File:Yellow-billed kite cropped.jpg, ''Milvus aegyptius parasitus'' Yellow-billed kite (Milvus aegyptius parasitus) in flight Sao Tome.jpg, ''M. a. parasitus'',

São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé and Príncipe (; pt, São Tomé e Príncipe (); English: " Saint Thomas and Prince"), officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe ( pt, República Democrática de São Tomé e Príncipe), is a Portuguese-speaking ...

Yellow-billed kite (Milvus aegyptius aegyptius) in flight Ethiopia.jpg, ''M. a. aegyptius'',

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

Yellow-billed Kite (Milvus aegyptius parasitus).jpg, ''Milvus aegyptius parasitus'', Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda Yellow-billed Kite (Milvus aegyptius parasitus) juvenile.jpg, juvenile ''Milvus aegyptius parasitus'', The Gambia

References

External links

* Yellow-billed kite
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
{{Taxonbar, from=Q32840 yellow-billed kite Birds of prey of Africa yellow-billed kite yellow-billed kite