An elanid kite, sometimes white-tailed kite, is any of several small, long-winged, hovering raptor

Bird of prey

Birds of prey are birds that hunt for food primarily on the wing, using their keen senses, especially vision. They are defined as birds that primarily hunt vertebrates, including other birds. Their talons and beaks tend to be relatively large, powerful and adapted for tearing and/or piercing flesh....

s. All are specialist rodent

Rodent

Rodentia is an order of mammals also known as rodents, characterised by two continuously growing incisors in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing....

 hunters and most are members of the genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Elanus

Elanus

Black-winged Kites is a genus of bird of prey in the elanid kite subfamily. It consists of four species.* Black-winged Kite, Elanus caeruleus* Black-shouldered Kite, Elanus axillaris* White-tailed Kite, Elanus leucurus...

. Some authorities list the group as a formal subfamily, Elaninae. As a subfamily there are eight species in five genera

Genera

Genera is a commercial operating system and development environment for Lisp machines developed by Symbolics. It is essentially a fork of an earlier operating system originating on the MIT AI Lab's Lisp machines which Symbolics had used in common with LMI and Texas Instruments...

 with four of these genera being monotypic

Monotypic

In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group with only one biological type. The term's usage differs slightly between botany and zoology. The term monotypic has a separate use in conservation biology, monotypic habitat, regarding species habitat conversion eliminating biodiversity and...

.

Elanid kites have a near-worldwide distribution, with three endemic species found in the Americas

Americas

The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...

, two in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, one each in Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

 and southern Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

, while the Black-winged Kite

Black-winged Kite

The Black-winged Kite is a small diurnal bird of prey in the family Accipitridae best known for its habit of hovering over open grasslands in the manner of the much-smaller kestrels...

 is found over a vast range from Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and Africa in the west to Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...

 in the east.

Species

• Genus Elanus
  Elanus
  Black-winged Kites is a genus of bird of prey in the elanid kite subfamily. It consists of four species.* Black-winged Kite, Elanus caeruleus* Black-shouldered Kite, Elanus axillaris* White-tailed Kite, Elanus leucurus...
  
  
  • Black-winged Kite
    Black-winged Kite
    The Black-winged Kite is a small diurnal bird of prey in the family Accipitridae best known for its habit of hovering over open grasslands in the manner of the much-smaller kestrels...
    
    , Elanus caeruleus
  • Black-shouldered Kite
    Black-shouldered Kite
    The Black-shouldered Kite or Australian Black-shouldered Kite is a small raptor found in open habitat throughout Australia and resembles similar species found in Eurasia and North America, which have in the past also been named as Black-shouldered Kites...
    
    , Elanus axillaris
  • White-tailed Kite
    White-tailed Kite
    The White-tailed Kite is an elanid kite of genus Elanus found in western North America and parts of South America.Their coloration is gull-like, but their shape and flight falcon-like, with a rounded tail...
    
    , Elanus leucurus
  • Letter-winged Kite
    Letter-winged Kite
    The Letter-winged Kite 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, raptor with black shoulders and red eyes...
    
    , Elanus scriptus
• Genus Chelictinia
  • Scissor-tailed Kite, Chelictinia riocourii
• Genus Machaerhamphus
  • Bat Hawk
    Bat Hawk
    The Bat Hawk is a raptor found in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia to New Guinea. It is named for its diet, which consists mainly of bats. It requires open space in which to hunt, but will live anywhere from dense rainforest to semi-arid veld.-Description:The Bat Hawk is a slender, medium-sized...
    
    , Machaerhamphus alcinus
• Genus Gampsonyx
  • Pearl Kite
    Pearl Kite
    The Pearl Kite is a very small raptor found in open savanna habitat adjacent to deciduous woodland. It is the only member of the genus Gampsonyx...
    
    , Gampsonyx swainsonii
• Genus Elanoides
  • Swallow-tailed Kite
    Swallow-tailed Kite
    The Swallow-tailed Kite is an elanid kite which breeds from the southeastern United States to eastern Peru and northern Argentina. Most North and Central American breeders winter in South America where the species is resident year round...
    
    , Elanoides forficatus