Letter-winged Kite
Date 24 October 2009, 09:18:35
Source https://www.flickr.com/photos/sussexbirder/8079582861
Author Ron Knight
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Letter-winged_Kite_(Elanus_scriptus)2.jpg

The letter-winged kite (Elanus scriptus) 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, bird with black shoulders and red eyes. It is similar in appearance to the black-shouldered kite except for a very distinctive black underwing pattern of a shallow ‘M’ shape, seen when in flight. Roosting during the day in well-foliaged trees and hunting at night, it is the world's only fully nocturnal Accipitriformes or Falconiformes raptor. Like all the elanid kites, it is a specialist predator of rodents, which it hunts by hovering in mid-air above grasslands and fields.
Order: Accipitriformes
Family: Accipitridae
Genus: Elanus
Species: Elanus scriptus (Gould, 1842)