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kite

Subgroup of birds of prey

Entityorganisms known by a particular common nameQ208342

Also known as kite bird

Instance of: organisms known by a particular common name
Subclass of: bird of prey

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Kite is the common name for certain birds of prey in the family Accipitridae, particularly in the subfamilies Elaninae and Perninae and certain genera within Buteoninae and Harpaginae. The term is derived from Old English cȳta, onomatopoeic from the call notes of the buzzard and red kite. The name, having no cognate names in other European languages, is thought to have arisen in England; it apparently originally denoted the buzzard, as the red kite was then known by the widespread Germanic name 'glede' or 'glead', and was only later transferred to the red kite as "fork-tailed kite" by Christopher Merret in his 1667 Pinax Rerum Naturalium Britannicarum. By the time of Thomas Pennant's 1768 British Zoology, the name had become fixed on the red kite, other birds named 'kite' around the world being named from their then-perceived relationship to it.

Overview

All data

19 statements · 11% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Taxon known by this common name: Elaninae reason for preferred rank: most precise value
Milvinae reason for preferred rank: most precise value
Accipitridae
Different from: Elaninae
Milvinae

On other databases

12 identifiers linking kite across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

11%

externally sourced

Source last edited September 28, 2026. AIDb refreshes this page daily.

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AIDb. (2026). kite (Q208342). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/kite-Q208342