Description
Measuring 33 to 38 cm in length (13-15 in) with a wingspan of 85 to 95 cm (34–38 in), and weighing around 291 g (10.3 oz), the adult Letter-winged Kite is a pale grey with a white head and white underparts. It bears a characteristic long black leading edge of the inner wing, which resembles a letter 'M' or 'W' when flying. When perched, this gives them their prominent black "shoulders". It has red eyes, with black eye patches surrounding. Their nostrils are yellow and the sharp hooked beaks are black. The legs and feet are also yellow, and the feet have three toes facing forwards and one toe facing backwards. The female can be distinguished by a greyer crown.
The 'M' or 'W' on the underside of its wing, and lack of black wing tips help distinguish it from the Black-shouldered Kite. In flight, it beats its wings more slowly and deeply. Finally, the latter species is diurnal, not nocturnal.
Its call is a chicken-like chirping or a repeated loud kacking.
Read more about this topic: Letter-winged Kite
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“Once a child has demonstrated his capacity for independent functioning in any area, his lapses into dependent behavior, even though temporary, make the mother feel that she is being taken advantage of....What only yesterday was a description of the child’s stage in life has become an indictment, a judgment.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“An intentional object is given by a word or a phrase which gives a description under which.”
—Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe (b. 1919)
“Everything to which we concede existence is a posit from the standpoint of a description of the theory-building process, and simultaneously real from the standpoint of the theory that is being built. Nor let us look down on the standpoint of the theory as make-believe; for we can never do better than occupy the standpoint of some theory or other, the best we can muster at the time.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)