It is a very common sight in Goa to see huge numbers of big blackish- brown birds soaring high up in the sky, their numbers reaching up to 200 individuals especially above the dumping grounds of Campal, Margao and Betim harbor. This is the Black Kite (), which is often mistaken for an eagle by many people. The Black Kite belongs to the Accipitridae family which is related to the eagles and hawks. This bird is easily identifiable by its nice dark- fulvous brown coloured body and a very deep forked tail (Y-shaped) seen in flight. Males and females look similar. These birds are very vocal and have a “” call which is highly nasal in its quality.
The Black Kite is a wide spread resident in India and is highly dependent on human populations. They are a regular feature at all the big cities and its dump yards. Every major city in India has a very healthy population of this species. They are omnivorous and will eat almost anything which they can find, but in the breeding season they are noted to hunt actively to feel their young ones with a diet of high protein content.
There are four known sub species of this species found in the world and two out of them are found in India: Black Kite () and Back-eared Kite (). The Black-eared Kite is a migrant to India which breeds in the northern Himalayas up till Siberia and visits the country in winter. Black-eared Kites are less dependent on human populations and are not carrion feeders like the Black Kite. In Goa, the Black-eared Kites seem to show an uncanny preference to coastal areas and beaches often preferring to feed on mussels at low tide.
In his magnum-opus Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan, Dr. Salim Ali mentions in a note “”. Heinz Lainer the Goan Ornithologist though has gathered very precise and robust data on the local migration patterns of this species from Goa to the adjoining drier parts of Karnataka in the past 25 years of his studies of birds of Goa and it is very clear that they leave exactly at the onset of monsoons and return back as soon as monsoons start receding.
The Back Kites are highly vulnerable to food poisoning due to our irresponsible ways of disposing garbage. It has been reported that this bird often eats plastics and glass which leads to a painful death. Black Kites form a very important link of the scavenger part of our food chain and their disappearance from this system will cause heavy damage to us.
