Pearl Kite - Gampsonyx swainsonii

Pearl Kite (Gampsonyx swainsonii)

Brazil

The Pearl Kite is one of the smallest raptors being the size of a thrush. It is found from north Colombia to northern Argentina with seperate populations in Nicaragua and along the Pacific coast of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru

It is found in dry, shrubby habitats such as cerrado as well as in savanna and open woodland. It is usually quite conspicuous and is often seen perched on utility wires, normally facing the observer and looking very white as in photo 4.

Apart from its white underparts, it has a slaty black back, creamy forehead and cheeks and a white collar. The subspecies found north of the Amazon, G. s. leonae, has rufous flanks.

Pearl Kite, Alta Floresta, Mato Grosso, Brazil, December 2006 - click for larger image

It feeds mainly on lizards one of which has just been caught in the second photo.

There are illustrations in HBW, Volume 2, Pages 52 and 111; Hilty & Brown, Plates 5 and VII; Ridgely & Greenfield, Plate 10; and Sick, Plate 8.

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