Thursday, April 22, 2010

Kite ('Sankhachil')

It is perhaps very difficult to take a photo of a Kite or an Eagle because they usually sit high up and fly high! 
This beautiful Brahminy Kite (Haliastur Indus) was spotted by our friend in a rural area in West Bengal. We learned that this is called 'Sankhachil' (a very celebrated name immortalized in poetry and novels in Bengali literature). 
The other common Kite in India is the Black Kite and this one is around the same size of that.
We hardly notice this Brahminy kite in the city areas nowadays.

From Wikipedia:
It is mainly a scavenger, feeding mainly on dead fish and crabs, especially in wetlands and marshlands but occasionally hunts live prey such as hares and bats.
Brahminy Kite is the official mascot of Jakarta. In India it is considered as the contemporary representation of Shree Garuda, the carrier of the Supreme God Krishna.


(More useful information is welcome.) 


Photo: Shankar Sinha, Panskura, West Bengal, India.

No comments:

Post a Comment