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Yellow Billed Kite Found singly or in pairs while breeding but is otherwise quite gregarious. The kites feed on insects, small mammals and just about any animal material that they can find. Yellow-billed kites are not noisy birds and are usually silent, uttering a “quill-err” most commonly during the breeding season.

A fairly large bird, about 55 cm in length and with a wingspan approaching one and a half metres, the Yellow-billed kite is an impressive specimen. When in flight the bird is fascinating to watch as it used its tail as a very active rudder to guide its buoyant flight, suspended on long wings that are angled backwards and the yellow bill and legs quite visible. The sexes are alike in plumage, but the females are slightly larger than the males.


The kites are monogamous and during the breeding season they build a bowl-shaped nest of sticks in the canopy of a suitable tree, lining it with dung, wool and any other bits of soft material that can be found. The nests are usually well concealed in the thick foliage. The female lays a clutch of two or three white eggs that are marked with brown, and that hatch after an incubation period of about 35 days.
Yellow Billed Kite
     
     
     
Photographed and Copyrighted ©2005 - 2011 All Right Reserved By: Harriet Smith
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