• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Reference and further resources

Taxonomic note

Milvus aegyptius (Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International 2020) has been split from Black Kite Milvus migrans (del Hoyo et al. 2014)

Yellow-billed Kite Milvus aegyptius (with subspecies parasitus) differs from M. migrans by its
·       Yellow vs black bill (3);
·       Dark vs pale iris in adult state (2);
·       Head and nape concolorous with upper body vs pale grey streaked black, contrasting with dark brown mantle (2);
·       Finer black streaking below (ns[2])
·       Wing (from BWP2) male 423 (7.6; n9) vs 447 (10.5; n15), effect size 2.62 (2).

Some Arabian birds (treated as arabicus in some places but synonymised with aegyptius in the Checklist) show some features of migrans (Forsman 2016).

Taxonomic source(s)
Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International. 2020. Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 5. Available at: https://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v5_Dec20.zip.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2021	Least Concern
2020	Least Concern
2016	Not Recognised
2012	Not Recognised
2010	Not Recognised
2008	Not Recognised
2004	Not Recognised
2000	Not Recognised
1994	Not Recognised
1988	Not Recognised

Migratory status	full migrant	Forest dependency	low
Land-mass type		Average mass	-

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	116,000,000 km2
Extent of Occurrence (non-breeding)	136,000,000 km2
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	unknown	poor	-	-
Population trend	decreasing	-	suspected	2000-2029
Generation length	9.3 years	-	-	-

Population justification: There are no estimates of the global population size of the species. Parker (2005) estimated 1,000 birds to be present, presumably breeding in central Mozambique. The abundance of the species in much of sub-Saharan Africa indicates that the population is likely to be very large. In the Western Cape a rapid increase has been recorded between the 1950s and 1960s and 1997-1998 (Herremans and Herremans-Tonnoeyr 2001), but in other parts of the range a rapid reduction in the numbers detected during driven transects has been reported (Thiollay 2007; Garbett et al. 2018). While there is little solid data, it is suspected that the population is slowly declining.

Trend justification: Despite probably being the commonest large raptor in Africa the population is suspected to have declined, most likely due to poisoning, shooting, pollution of water and over-use of pesticides. Thiollay (2007) reported declines in observations from driven transects of 70% between 1969-73 and 2000-2004. In Botswana, a partial repeat in 2015 of road transects carried out in 2000 returned a non-significant decline of 28% for Yellow-billed Kite (Garbett et al. 2018). However, in the Western Cape, a dramatic increase was recorded from similar paired road transect surveys comparing those driven in the 1950s and 1960s to repeats in 1997-98 (Herremans and Herremans-Tonnoeyr 2001). Overall, a slow population reduction is suspected.

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Angola	extant	native	yes
Benin	extant	native	yes
Botswana	extant	native	yes
Burkina Faso	extant	native	yes
Burundi	extant	native	yes
Cameroon	extant	native	yes
Central African Republic	extant	native	yes
Chad	extant	native	yes
Comoros	extant	native	yes
Congo	extant	native	yes
Congo, The Democratic Republic of the	extant	native	yes
Côte d'Ivoire	extant	native	yes
Djibouti	extant	native	yes
Egypt	extant	native	yes
Equatorial Guinea	extant	native	yes
Eritrea	extant	native	yes
Eswatini	extant	native	yes
Ethiopia	extant	native	yes
Gabon	extant	native	yes
Gambia	extant	native	yes
Ghana	extant	native	yes
Guinea	extant	native	yes
Guinea-Bissau	extant	native	yes
Israel	extant	vagrant
Kenya	extant	native	yes
Lesotho	extant	native	yes
Liberia	extant	native	yes
Madagascar	extant	native	yes
Malawi	extant	native	yes
Mali	extant	native	yes
Mauritania	extant	native	yes
Mayotte (to France)	extant	native	yes
Mozambique	extant	native	yes
Namibia	extant	native	yes
Niger	extant	native	yes
Nigeria	extant	native	yes
Oman	extant	native
Rwanda	extant	native	yes
São Tomé e Príncipe	extant	native	yes
Saudi Arabia	extant	native
Senegal	extant	native	yes
Sierra Leone	extant	native	yes
Somalia	extant	native	yes
South Africa	extant	native	yes
South Sudan	extant	native	yes
Sudan	extant	native	yes
Tanzania	extant	native	yes
Togo	extant	native	yes
Uganda	extant	native	yes
Yemen	extant	native	yes
Zambia	extant	native	yes
Zimbabwe	extant	native	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Terrestrial	Arable Land	suitable	breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Arable Land	suitable	non-breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Pastureland	suitable	breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Pastureland	suitable	non-breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Rural Gardens	suitable	breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Rural Gardens	suitable	non-breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Urban Areas	suitable	breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Urban Areas	suitable	non-breeding
Desert	Hot	suitable	breeding
Desert	Hot	suitable	non-breeding
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	suitable	breeding
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	suitable	non-breeding
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Lowland	suitable	breeding
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Lowland	suitable	non-breeding
Forest	Temperate	suitable	breeding
Forest	Temperate	suitable	non-breeding
Grassland	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	suitable	breeding
Grassland	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	suitable	non-breeding
Grassland	Temperate	suitable	breeding
Grassland	Temperate	suitable	non-breeding
Marine Coastal/Supratidal	Sea Cliffs and Rocky Offshore Islands	suitable	breeding
Marine Coastal/Supratidal	Sea Cliffs and Rocky Offshore Islands	suitable	non-breeding
Marine Intertidal	Rocky Shoreline	suitable	breeding
Marine Intertidal	Rocky Shoreline	suitable	non-breeding
Marine Intertidal	Sandy Shoreline and/or Beaches, Sand Bars, Spits, Etc	suitable	breeding
Marine Intertidal	Sandy Shoreline and/or Beaches, Sand Bars, Spits, Etc	suitable	non-breeding
Marine Intertidal	Shingle and/or Pebble Shoreline and/or Beaches	suitable	breeding
Marine Intertidal	Shingle and/or Pebble Shoreline and/or Beaches	suitable	non-breeding
Marine Intertidal	Tidepools	suitable	breeding
Marine Intertidal	Tidepools	suitable	non-breeding
Savanna	Dry	suitable	breeding
Savanna	Dry	suitable	non-breeding
Shrubland	Mediterranean-type Shrubby Vegetation	suitable	breeding
Shrubland	Mediterranean-type Shrubby Vegetation	suitable	non-breeding
Shrubland	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	suitable	breeding
Shrubland	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	suitable	non-breeding
Shrubland	Temperate	suitable	breeding
Shrubland	Temperate	suitable	non-breeding
Wetlands (inland)	Bogs, Marshes, Swamps, Fens, Peatlands	suitable	breeding
Wetlands (inland)	Bogs, Marshes, Swamps, Fens, Peatlands	suitable	non-breeding
Altitude	0 - 2400 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Biological resource use	Hunting & trapping terrestrial animals - Persecution/control	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Species mortality
Energy production & mining	Renewable energy	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Negligible declines		Low Impact: 4
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Species mortality
Pollution	Agricultural & forestry effluents - Herbicides and pesticides	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Majority (50-90%)		Unknown		Unknown
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Species mortality

---

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Yellow-billed Kite Milvus aegyptius. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/yellow-billed-kite-milvus-aegyptius on 26/12/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 26/12/2024.