DISTRIBUTED throughout Southern Africa, the blackshouldered kite is our most common raptor.
This kite is found solitary or in pairs.
By day it roosts communally, while at night it is present in flocks of up to 100 birds. They hunt from a perch or by hovering over open grassland.
This raptor drops onto its prey with its legs extended, sometimes in stages before the final strike. The flight action is graceful and buoyant.
Some 98% of its food source is rodents and sometimes small birds, reptiles and insects. The blackshoulder kite’s call is a wheezy whistle and scream, also a high pitched ‘peeeu’.
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The breeding season is throughout the year. Three to four cream to buff eggs are laid in the nest, which is a high platform of sticks in the fork of a thorn tree. Incubation is 30 to 33 days and nestlings remain for 30 to 35 days.
The tribal name is unongwevana and in Afrikaans it is known as blouvalk.
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