Family Hawks, Eagles (Accipitridae)
Endangered
White-collared Kite (Leptodon forbesi)
Taxonomy
Descriptive notes
Male 50 cm, 580 g; female 49 cm, 550 g. A large kite, blackish above, white below; head grey (sometimes only crown is grey and occasionally entire head white), whiter on... read more
Voice
No obvious differences from L. cayanensis. Series of short calls, e.g. “kua-kua-kua-... read more
Habitat
Atlantic coastal rainforest, at up to c. 600 m. Also recorded flying over mangroves (Rhizophora... read more
Food and feeding
No information available, other than one observation that swooped down from its perch, took an unseen (and unidentified) item of prey (... read more
Breeding
Few data available, but butterfly display flights (rapid, shortened wingbeats on partially folded wings held well above the horizontal)... read more
Movements
Presumably sedentary, but has been observed moving between forest fragments isolated by fields of... read more
Status and conservation
ENDANGERED. CITES II. Has very limited range in small area of NE Brazil, within which known population extremely small, but recent surveys indicate that it seems to occur in... read more
Until recently was considered a variant immature plumage of L. cayanensis, but specimens of both adult and immature individuals collected in Alagoas (NE Brazil) fit type description; furthermore, recent detailed morphological analysis supports treatment of forbesi as a valid species#R. Despite some confusion caused by continued publishing of reports of L. cayanensis from Pernambuco and Alagoas#R, there is no certain evidence that the two occur sympatrically. Monotypic.