Black-shouldered Kites in Australia have done well since white-settlement with farming and cropping resulting in large areas of open country, which they prefer, and the introduction of rats and mice which sometimes experience waste grain based population explosions when raptor populations can also erupt. This may explain why in East Gippsland we have Black-shouldered Kites in some years and then seemingly none or very few in others.
This beautiful kite can often be seen hovering (1) over open country as it scans for a range of prey items with rodents particularly favoured. As rodents are nocturnal kites are often active in the early morning and late in the day when their prey are more likely to be out and about. During the day the birds may be found resting as was the case recently when I was fortunate to find a pair together by a road-side affording the opportunity to use the car to approach them and use as a hide for some photos.
Please click on photos to enlarge.
This Avithera post features two Black-shouldered Kites feeding on rats. https://avithera.blogspot.com/2013/06/post-script-to-autumn-morning-birding.html
(1) You can find some photos of a Black-shouldered Kite hovering here: https://avithera.blogspot.com/2017/12/black-shouldered-kite-hovering.html
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