Black-shouldered Kite is a medium-sized raptor with high flying and gliding abilities. It is characterized by black and white plumage, bright red eyes, and yellow legs.

They inhabit open woodlands, grasslands, and farmlands with trees and shrubs, especially in areas with scattered trees. It can also live in coastal sand dunes, especially in the southern and western regions of Australia, and can be found along tree-lined waterways and even in municipal dumps.

They mainly feed on field rodents, insects, small birds, hares, and reptiles. They feed mainly by waiting for birds and insects on poles and at the top of tall trees and then swooping down to catch them.

Another way is by hovering silently in the sky for a long time, gliding, watching the ground, and then swooping down to catch the prey.

The Black-shouldered Kite feeds primarily on rats. They sometimes prey on animals of comparable size, including grasshoppers and small reptiles. However, rats and other mammals about the same size as rats account for nine-tenths of all their prey.

Their impact on rat populations is extremely important. Each adult Black-shouldered Kite can eat two to three rats per day, as circumstances permit. A male Black-shouldered Kite can hunt no less than 14 mice in an hour and bring them back to the nest for his chicks to feed on.

Black-shouldered kites will search the grasslands for prey. While hunting, they will generally hover in the air. Generally, kites will hover within 10 to 50 meters and look down carefully. A few seconds or sometimes a minute after this, they will fly to another location, hover again, and search.

When the Black-shouldered Kite sees a mouse or other prey, they descend without a word to the head of the prey and grasp it with their claws. They are successful in about two-thirds of their attacks. They may eat the prey on the way or bring it back to the nest.

Black-shouldered Kites are found throughout almost all of Australia, but in fact they are mainly found in the relatively fertile southeast and southwest parts of the continent.

They are also extremely common throughout the south. They rarely venture deep into the desert. They live mainly in grasslands, but can also be found in woods. They are also acting as accomplices to one of the forest firehouses in Australia

The reason why forest fires in Australia are so difficult to fight is because of the dry climate and high temperatures with little rain making trees extremely vulnerable to ignition. Also because of the limited power, the entire Australian firefighting force is not enough to deal with mountain fires of this scale.

In addition, there is another reason that has only recently been discovered, that is, there are several kinds of raptors that can set fires, and they have become accomplices to the fires.

The Black-shouldered Kite is the most common raptor in Australia. What's even more amazing is that this bird will grab a smoking branch from the fire, throw it somewhere else to relight the fire, and then leave. When the critters are burned or burned to death, they come back to eat. This intelligence is quite high.

In short, this bird is both beautiful and intelligent. The species has a wide distribution and a stable population trend, so it is evaluated as a species without an existential crisis.