 Black-shouldered kites live almost exclusively on mice, and have become a specialist predator of house mice, often following outbreaks of mouse plagues in rural areas. They take other suitably sized creatures when available, including grasshoppers, rats, small reptiles, birds, and even (very rarely) rabbits, but mice and other mouse-sized mammals account for over 90 % of their diet. Their influence on mouse populations is probably significant: adults take two or three mice a day each if they can, around a thousand mice a year. On one occasion, a male was observed bringing no less than 14 mice to a nest of well-advanced fledglings within an hour. In another study, a female kite was seen to struggle back to fledglings in the nest with a three-quarters grown rabbit, a heavy load for such a small bird.
