Graceful guardians of the grasslands

A red-eyed sentinel watches over Navilu Kaadu from his perch on the tall sizzling tree, a tree we call Baage mara in Kannada (Albizia lebbeck). He scans the wild grassland for his meal. On spotting a prospect, he gracefully takes wing and halts midair. Gazing straight into the grass below, he holds position, hovering, flapping his wings for balance. A couple of minutes on, the hunter dives in, feet first, for the kill. I watch with bated breath through my binoculars, till he emerges and soars into the air clutching something in his talons — a field mouse!

The predator then airlifts his quarry to a suitable dining branch on the Baage mara and proceeds to dismember the hexed mouse.

Meet Navilu Kaadu’s charismatic raptor, the black-winged kite aka black-shouldered kite (Elanus caeruleus), sharply turned out in wispy grey and snow-white plumage. He wears ebony wing coverts or shoulder patches, has butterscotch yellow legs and cere (fleshy patch above the beak), black talons, and flaming rubies for eyes. His long wings extend beyond his tail when he perches. Our plentiful savannah is his happy hunting ground where he stalks rodents, grasshoppers, crickets, an odd snake, lizards and other ground-dwelling creatures. He sometimes hunts birds and bats on the wing. He adopts another hunting technique, too, called quartering, patrolling closer to terra firma for prey.

Adult black-winged kites devour two to three mice a day. They belong to Accipitridae, a family of raptors that hover over grasslands, stalking terrestrial prey.

This elegant little raptor is around 15 inches long and is partial to open scrublands, farmlands and grasslands dotted with trees — habitats with an abundant supply of rodents and ample scope for unobstructed aerial views to track down prey. The female is a tad larger than the male.

Black-winged kites are diurnal, which means they are active during the day. These birds are quite the acrobats and are equipped with cool adaptations that help them pull off graceful aerial manoeuvres. They soar, bank, glide and flutter on long, narrow wings. A short, square tail helps with balance.

They have forward-facing eyes like owls do, to track down quick-footed rodents scurrying through the grass below, and to precisely gauge distance. I particularly dig the dark, feathered lining around their crimson eyes. Smokey eye makeup, anyone?

Zygodactyl feet — three toes pointing forward and one pointing backwards — lend a strong grip when they perch.

These kites are adept at making themselves at home in changing habitats, and one can spot them in open spaces in urban and peri-urban areas, too. Black-winged kites are monogamous and devote themselves to a single mate all their lives. Courtship among black-winged kites is straight out of a Bollywood song and dance sequence! The pair flies in circles high up in the air, not unlike brash heroes and coy heroines circling trees.

The lovesick male flaps about in a flight pattern called ‘flutter flight’ or ‘butterfly flight.’ They squeal and squawk sweet nothings to one another, chase each other and clutch talons midair, putting seasoned trapeze artists to shame. The way to a female black-winged kite’s heart is through her gizzard, and the male woos his lady love with delicious aerial meals.

Mated pairs collect twigs for nesting material. The female builds a rudimentary grass-lined twig nest and lays a clutch of three to five off-white eggs with tan speckles. She incubates the eggs, while the male ensures she is fed. The chicks hatch in about a month and fledge in 45 days (a fledged chick is fully feathered and learning to fly). A month after fledging, they are ready to venture out on their own, though the father continues to feed them. Juveniles have dark irises and scaly feathers, and gain adult plumage after two years of age. They begin to breed when they turn one.

Black-winged kites live for up to six years. They raise several broods in a good year with abundant food. Their voracious appetite for rats and mice keeps the rodent population in Navilu Kaadu and elsewhere in check.

Despite their remarkable adaptive quality, black-winged kites are at risk of habitat loss from indiscriminate pesticide spraying that erodes their prey base, and from the vexing tendency to classify biodiverse, life-sustaining grasslands as wastelands to be built over.

Rooting For Nature is a monthly column on an off-kilter urban family’s trysts with nature on a natural farm. The author runs Green Goobé, a sustainable venture. Reach her at [e-mail] or @ramyacoushik on Instagram.