🐾 Black Kite

Milvus migrans · wildlife atlas entry

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The black kite ( Milvus migrans ) is a medium-sized bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors. It is thought to be the world's most abundant species of Accipitridae, although some populations have experienced dramatic declines or fluctuations. Current global population estimates run up to 6 million individuals. Unlike others of the group, black kites are opportunistic hunters and are more likely to scavenge. They spend a lot of time soaring Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.

Black Kite — reference photo from iNaturalist — no rights reserved, uploaded by Joshua S. Martin · cc0

Record card

Scientific name	Milvus migrans
Rank	species
Community observations	131,146 research-grade records on iNaturalist

Classification

kingdom Animalia › phylum Chordata › class Aves › order Accipitriformes › family Accipitridae

Seen in the wild — community photographs

Black Kite photograph by the iNaturalist community — 2026-10-24 · Gokhalenagar, Pune, Maharashtra, India
(c) Ketan Bhave, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) · cc-by-nc

Black Kite photograph by the iNaturalist community — 2026-08-22 · Middle Point, NT, AU
(c) Peter de Jongh, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) · cc-by-nc

Black Kite photograph by the iNaturalist community — 2026-10-22 · Ujani Dam
(c) pri_ya, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) · cc-by-nc

Black Kite photograph by the iNaturalist community — 2026-07-24 · 74500 Publier, Frankreich
(c) Michael Grundner, some rights reserved (CC BY) · cc-by

Black Kite photograph by the iNaturalist community — 2026-10-22 · Ujani Dam
(c) pri_ya, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) · cc-by-nc

Photographs are Creative Commons-licensed observations from iNaturalist, credited as each licence requires. Click any photo for the full research record.

All Black Kite records on iNaturalist → · Encyclopedia entry (Wikipedia) →

Data: iNaturalist open API · stored on this server by the wildlife build so a page request never reaches the network · observations filtered to research grade with photos.

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