Square-tailed Kite Taking Paper-wasp Nest: Australia’s Honey-Buzzard?

Abstract

On the inland slopes of northern New South Wales in March 2006, i.e. the nonbreeding season for most birds, a Square-tailed Kite Lophoictinia isura took a communal nest of paper-wasps Polistes, and extracted and ate the larvae at a perch. This behaviour is typical of honey-buzzards Pernis, to which Lophoictinia is now known to be related.