Rescued – Brahminy Kite

A few days ago a brahminy kite (Haliastur indus) was brought into the WFFT Wildlife Rescue Centre after the owners felt he needed a more suitable home. We were informed by the owner that they had found the kite on the ground close to their house when he was a chick and had hand reared him. He spent the next 2 years in a dog carry cage until the owner saw sense and brought him to us.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species of threatened species lists the Brahminy kite as Least Concern (LC). This does not mean that this animal is not endangered as its population is still decreasing but is classified as Least Concern due to its extremely large home range. The population is declining, especially in Southeast Asia, owing to loss of habitat, persecution, over-use of pesticides and, possibly, increased human hygiene resulting in reduction of available scraps.

Ma Ruay, as the previous owner had named him, is around 3 years old. The cage he had been kept in was clearly not suitable. Amazingly his body condition is not as bad as you would as expect after spending years in a tony cage. He had been fed fresh fish, chicken and pork, however his wing muscles are in a bad shape, it will take sometime before he gets the strength back to properly fly. We will move him out of the hospital into a larger enclosure very soon.