All species › Birds of prey › Kites, Old World vultures, eagles and hawks › Grey-headed Kite
Grey-headed Kite | Leptodon cayanensis
Grijskopwouw | Gavilán cabeza gris | Gavião-de-cabeça-cinza
The Grey-headed Kite is a medium-sized raptor of humid lowland forest, with a pale grey head, a black back and white underparts. It sits still in the canopy for long periods and is mainly seen when it circles above the forest in the late morning. Juveniles occur in several plumage types, and the pale form closely resembles Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle.
Voice
A cat-like mewing call, and a long series of rapid, hoarse kek-kek-kek calls, often from a hidden perch in the canopy.
Recording: Mauricio Cuellar Ramirez (@Birding.travel) — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
46–53 cm, with broad, round-tipped wings, a long tail and a small head. The adult has a pale grey head, blackish back and upperwings and white underparts. The tail is black with two or three narrow grey bands and a pale tip. In flight the underwing coverts are black and the flight feathers white with black bars. The legs are bluish grey. The sexes are alike. Juveniles have a pale and a dark plumage: the pale form is white on the head and underparts with a black crown patch and a blackish-brown back; the dark form is brown with dark streaks on the head and underparts.
Confusion species
Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle Spizaetus melanoleucus closely resembles the pale juvenile Grey-headed Kite, but has a short black crest, a black mask around the eye, an orange cere and legs feathered to the toes. White Hawk Pseudastur albicollis is largely white, with a short white tail with a broad black band. Grey-lined Hawk Buteo nitidus is smaller, with finely grey-barred underparts.
Habitat
Humid and semi-humid lowland forest, gallery forest, várzea and forest edges, also tall secondary forest, from sea level to about 1200 m, locally higher. It searches the canopy for large insects, wasp nests, lizards, frogs and nestlings. The nest is a small stick cup high in a tree.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia in the lowlands of the Pacific coast, the Caribbean region, the Magdalena valley and Amazonia. In Ecuador in the western and eastern lowlands. In Peru mainly east of the Andes, with a few records in the north-west. In Bolivia in the lowlands of the north and east. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area from southern Mexico to Venezuela, the Guianas, Brazil, Paraguay and north-eastern Argentina.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In the late morning, scan over the forest from a clearing, a riverbank or a tower, when the species circles above the canopy. The black underwing coverts with white, barred flight feathers help identification.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species depends on large forest tracts and is declining locally through deforestation.
Scientific name
Leptodon cayanensis | (Latham, 1790)
Latham described the species in 1790 as Falco cayanensis; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Leptodon was introduced in 1836 by Sundevall. The genus name comes from Greek leptos, 'fine, slender', and odous, 'tooth', probably for the small tooth on the edge of the bill. The species name refers to Cayenne in French Guiana, not necessarily the type locality. The specimen the first description was based on came from Cayenne, French Guiana.