Brahminy kite
Haliastur indus (Boddaert, 1783)
The brahminy kite (Haliastur indus), also called the Red-backed sea-eagle, is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae and the order Accipitriformes. It is a small bird with an adult body mass of 529 g and a wingspan from 1.1 to 1.25 m.
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Quick facts about the brahminy kite
The brahminy kite lives in coastal habitats, is sedentary, and has a geographic range of 8,840,000 km²; checklists record it in Australia. Its clutch is 2 eggs, incubated for 26.5 days, and it is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, which is not a threatened category.
- Weight
- 409 g – 529 gsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Wingspan
- 1.1 m – 1.25 msrc for Wingspan
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Diet
- Omnivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- coastalsrc for Habitat
- Egg incubation
- 26.5 dayssrc for Egg incubation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 1.4 – 2src for Young per litter or clutch
- Active
- By day (diurnal)src for Active
- Lifestyle
- Generalistsrc for Lifestyle
- Migration
- Sedentarysrc for Migration
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
How big is the brahminy kite?
Photos of the brahminy kite
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
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Where does the brahminy kite live?
Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.
The brahminy kite is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Why a country list is not a range map
Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
What is the brahminy kite?
The brahminy kite (Haliastur indus), also known as the red-backed sea-eagle, is a medium-sized bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors, such as eagles, buzzards, and harriers, found in the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and Australia. The brahminy kite is found mainly on the coast and in inland wetlands, where it feeds on dead fish and other prey. Adults have a reddish-brown body plumage contrasting with their white head and breast which make them easy to distinguish from other birds of prey.
From the Wikipedia article “Brahminy kite” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brahminy_kite&oldid=1374466305), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the brahminy kite endangered?
The brahminy kite is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species. What the categories mean.
How is the brahminy kite classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderAccipitriformes
- familyAccipitridae
- genusHaliastur
- SpeciesHaliastur indus (Boddaert, 1783)
Synonyms Aquila ponticeriana, Falco indus, Falco pondicerianus, Falco pondicherri, Haliaeetus indus, Haliaëtus garuda
Other names and names in other languages (55)
- Red-backed sea-eagleEnglish
- حدأة براهميةArabic
- Браминска каняBulgarian
- শঙ্খ চিলBangla
- milà capblancCatalan
- luňák bělohlavýCzech
- luňák brahmínskýCzech
- barcud brahminiWelsh
- BrahminglenteDanish
- BrahminenweihGerman
- BrahmanenmilanGerman
- Brahminen-WeiheGerman
- hindia milvoEsperanto
- Milano brahmánSpanish
- valgepea-purihaugasEstonian
- کورکور برهماییPersian
- bramiinihaukkaFinnish
- Milan sacréFrench
- Cúr IndiachIrish
- બાહ્મણી સમડીGujarati
- ब्राह्मिनी चीलHindi
- crveno-bijela lunjaCroatian
- Brahmin kányaHungarian
- Elang bondolIndonesian
- Nibbio braminoItalian
- シロガシラトビJapanese
- ಬಿಳಿ ಗರುಡKannada
- 흰머리솔개Korean
- azijinis peslysLithuanian
- brahmaņu klījaLatvian
- കൃഷ്ണപ്പരുന്ത്Malayalam
- समुद्री घारMarathi
- ब्राह्मनी घारMarathi
- Helang merahMalay
- Burung Helang MerahMalay
- सेतोटाउके चीलNepali
- Brahmaanse WouwDutch
- braminglenteNorwegian
- ଶଙ୍ଖଚିଲOdia
- ਬ੍ਰਾਹਮਣੀ ਇੱਲPunjabi
- kania bramińskaPolish
- milhafre-brâmanePortuguese
- milhafre-de-dorso-ruivoPortuguese
- Браминский коршунRussian
- haja brahmanskáSlovak
- браманска луњаSerbian
- Bramanska lunjaSerbian
- brahmingladaSwedish
- செம்பருந்துTamil
- கிருஷ்ண பருந்துTamil
- เหยี่ยวแดงThai
- Brahman ÇaylağıTurkish
- шуліка королівськийUkrainian
- 栗鳶Chinese
- 栗鸢Chinese
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List
Relatives of the brahminy kite
Other species in the same genus Haliastur.
Whistling kite
Haliastur sphenurus
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
What kind of animal is the brahminy kite?
The brahminy kite is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, order Accipitriformes.
How big is the brahminy kite?
The brahminy kite weighs 529 g as an adult and has a wingspan from 1.1 to 1.25 m, placing it in the small size class.
What does the brahminy kite eat?
The brahminy kite is classed as an omnivore by diet category, with a trophic level of carnivore.
Which countries is the brahminy kite recorded in?
Checklists record the brahminy kite in Australia, and its geographic range covers 8,840,000 km².
Is the brahminy kite endangered?
No. The brahminy kite is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, which is not a threatened category.
How many eggs does the brahminy kite lay?
The brahminy kite lays a clutch of 2 eggs, which are incubated for 26.5 days.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Brahminy kite (Haliastur indus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/brahminy-kite
“Brahminy kite (Haliastur indus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/brahminy-kite.
@misc{brahminy_kite_2026,
title = {Brahminy kite (Haliastur indus)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/brahminy-kite},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}