Haliastur indus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The brahminy kite (Haliastur indus), also known as the red-backed sea-eagle, is a medium-sized bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors, such as eagles, buzzards, and harriers, found in the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and Australia. The brahminy kite is found mainly on the coast and in inland wetlands, where it feeds on dead fish and other prey. Adults have a reddish-brown body plumage contrasting with their white head and breast which make them easy to distinguish from other birds of prey.
In 1760, French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson described and illustrated the Brahminy kite in the first volume of his Oiseaux based on a specimen collected in Pondicherry, India. He used the French name L'aigle de Pondichery. The brahminy kite was included by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. It was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither Brisson nor Buffon included a scientific... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kollam | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Colachel | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Kochi | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Thiruvananthapuram | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Ponnani | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Kozhikode | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Mysuru | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Bengaluru | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Coimbatore | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Brahminy Kite sighting in Vasai-Virar on a given day, based on 41 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 135th most-seen of the 217 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June to September
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Brahminy Kite in Vasai-Virar on a given day, against under 5% in October to May, the lowest months. Those are among Vasai-Virar's wettest months, with about 590 mm of rain a month against almost none in January.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Brahminy Kite sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
33rd of 40
Of the 40 cities where we can rate Brahminy Kite sightings, Vasai-Virar ranks 33rd at under 5%. The best odds are in Kollam (India, over 90%), Colachel (India, about 90%) and Kochi (India, about 80%).
Same family: Accipitridae
The closest relatives of the Brahminy Kite that you can see in Vasai-Virar (family Accipitridae, Hawks, Eagles, and Kites) are Black Kite (about 70%), Western Marsh-Harrier (about 50%) and Black-winged Kite (about 40%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Brahminy Kite is recorded against all the birds logged in Vasai-Virar (41 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
