Food and Feeding
The Letter-winged Kite is the only fully nocturnal raptor. Its principal prey is the Long-haired Rat, Rattus villosissimus. When population numbers of this rodent build up, following good rainfall, the Kites are able to breed continuously and colonially so that their numbers increase in parallel. When the rodent populations decline, the now superabundant Kites may disperse and appear in coastal areas far from their normal range in which, though they may occasionally breed, they do not persist and eventually disappear. One central Australian study over two and a half years found the kites had relocated to an area within six months of a rodent outbreak starting.
Across Central Australia, it shares its habitat with another nocturnal rodent hunter, the Barn Owl (Tyto alba), with the latter species preferring larger rodents such as the Plains rat (Pseudomys australis) whereas the kite took all species, including the Sandy Inland Mouse (Pseudomys hermannsburgensis) and Spinifex Hopping Mouse (Notomys alexis), on availability. Overall, Letter-winged Kites average one rodent consumed a day. Other predators sharing its habitat include the dingo, feral cat and fox.
Letter-winged Kites have also been recorded hunting the introduced house mouse Mus musculus in north-eastern South Australia.
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