Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Accipitriformes > Accipitridae > Elanus > Elanus scriptus

Elanus scriptus (Letter-winged Kite)

Wikipedia Abstract

The letter-winged kite (Elanus scriptus) is a small, rare and irruptive Australian raptor with a core range in central Australia. The adult is a small and graceful, predominantly pale grey and white, bird with black shoulders and red eyes. It is similar in appearance to the black-shouldered kite except for a very distinctive black underwing pattern of a shallow ‘M’ shape, seen when in flight. Roosting during the day in well-foliaged trees and hunting at night, it is the world's only fully nocturnal Accipitriformes or Falconiformes raptor. Like all the elanid kites, it is a specialist predator of rodents, which it hunts by hovering in mid-air above grasslands and fields.
View Wikipedia Record: Elanus scriptus

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
8
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
43
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 16.2381
EDGE Score: 3.54027
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  316 grams
Birth Weight [2]  26 grams
Female Weight [1]  343 grams
Male Weight [1]  289 grams
Weight Dimorphism [1]  18.7 %
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Carnivore (Vertebrates)
Diet - Endothermic [3]  90 %
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  10 %
Forages - Ground [3]  100 %
Clutch Size [4]  5
Fledging [1]  35 days
Mating Display [2]  Non-acrobatic aerial display
Mating System [2]  Monogamy
Raptor Research Conservation Priority [5]  57
Snout to Vent Length [1]  14 inches (36 cm)
Wing Span [6]  34 inches (.86 m)

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Kosciuszko National Park II 1705480 New South Wales, Australia
Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park II 332429 Northern Territory, Australia

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Southwest Australia Australia No

Prey / Diet

Pseudomys australis (Australian native mouse)[6]
Rattus villosissimus (long-haired rat)[7]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Oxyuranus microlepidotus (Fierce Snake, Inland Taipan)1

Range Map

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Leaflet | © OpenStreetMap contributors

External References

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
♦ 2Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
♦ 3Hamish 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
♦ 4Jetz 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
♦ 5Buechley 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
♦ 6del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 7Population dynamics of two species of dragon lizards in arid Australia: the effects of rainfall, Christopher R. Dickman, Mike Letnic, Paul S. Mahon, Oecologia (1999) 119:357-366
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
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