Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Accipitriformes > Accipitridae > Elanus > Elanus leucurus

Elanus leucurus (White-tailed Kite)

Synonyms: Milvus leucurus (homotypic)
Language: Spanish

Wikipedia Abstract

The white-tailed kite (Elanus leucurus) is an elanid kite of genus Elanus found in western North America and parts of South America. Their coloration is gull-like, but their shape and flight falcon-like, with a rounded tail. Mainly white underneath, they have black wingtips and shoulders. A mid-sized kite, it measures 35–43 cm (14–17 in) in length, spans 88–102 cm (35–40 in) across the wings and weighs 250–380 g (8.8–13.4 oz). Both the wings, at 29–32.8 cm (11.4–12.9 in) each, and the tail, at 15.1–18.6 cm (5.9–7.3 in), are relatively elongated. The tarsus measures around 3.6 cm (1.4 in).
View Wikipedia Record: Elanus leucurus

Infraspecies

Elanus leucurus leucurus
Elanus leucurus majusculus (Northern white-tailed kite)

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
8
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
32
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 16.1389
EDGE Score: 2.84135
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  296 grams
Birth Weight [3]  17 grams
Female Weight [1]  318 grams
Male Weight [1]  274 grams
Weight Dimorphism [1]  16.1 %
Breeding Habitat [2]  Generalist, Agricultural
Wintering Geography [2]  Non-migrartory
Wintering Habitat [2]  Generalist, Agricultural
Diet [4]  Carnivore (Vertebrates)
Diet - Ectothermic [4]  10 %
Diet - Endothermic [4]  90 %
Forages - Aerial [4]  20 %
Forages - Ground [4]  80 %
Clutch Size [5]  4
Clutches / Year [3]  2
Fledging [1]  37 days
Global Population (2017 est.) [2]  2,000,000
Incubation [3]  30 days
Maximum Longevity [3]  6 years
Raptor Research Conservation Priority [6]  96
Snout to Vent Length [1]  15 inches (39 cm)
Wing Span [7]  37 inches (.94 m)
Female Maturity [1]  1 year 12 months

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Ecosystems

Biodiversity Hotspots

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Audio

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Provided by Center for Biological Diversity via Myxer Author: ASU-Ask A Biologist

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 2Partners in Flight Avian Conservation Assessment Database, version 2017. Accessed on January 2018.
♦ 3de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 4Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 5Jetz W, Sekercioglu CH, Böhning-Gaese K (2008) The Worldwide Variation in Avian Clutch Size across Species and Space PLoS Biol 6(12): e303. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060303
♦ 6Buechley ER, Santangeli A, Girardello M, et al. Global raptor research and conservation priorities: Tropical raptors fall prey to knowledge gaps. Divers Distrib. 2019;25:856–869. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12901
♦ 7On the allometry of wings, Enrique Morgado, Bruno Günther and Urcesino Gonzalez, Revista Chilena de Historia Natural 60: 71-79, 1987
♦ 8Predation upon small mammals in shrublands and grasslands of southern South America: ecological correlates and presumable consequences, Fabian M. Jaksic, Revista Chilena de Historia Natural 59: 209-221 (1986)
♦ 9Holochilus sciureus, Guillermo R. Barreto and Shaenandhoa GarcÍa-Rangel, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 780, pp. 1-5 (2005)
♦ 10Raptor Predation on Wintering Shorebirds, G. Page and D. F. Whitacre, The Condor, Vol. 77, No. 1 (Spring, 1975), pp. 73-83
♦ 11Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Audio software provided by SoundManager 2
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0