kite (bird)

kite in zoology, common name for a bird of the family Accipitridae, which also includes the hawk . Kites are found near water and marshes in warm parts of the world. They prey chiefly on reptiles, frogs, and insects. The swallow-tailed, white-tailed, and Mississippi kites are found in the Gulf states and in Central and South America. The Everglade kite, Rostrhamus sociabilis, feeds exclusively on a large freshwater snail. The common kite of England, now rare, was once a scavenger in the streets of London. Kites are classified in the phylum Chordata , subphylum Vertebrata, class Aves, order Falconiformes, family Accipitridae.

kite bird of prey OE.; toy to be flown XVII. OE. cȳta, prob. of imit. orig.

kite from the mid 16th century, the name of this bird of prey was used figuratively for a person preying on others, a rapacious person, a sharper.

The use of kite to mean a toy consisting of a light frame with thin material stretched over it, flown in the wind at the end of a long string, is recorded from the mid 17th century, and derives from its hovering in the air like a bird.

The name is recorded from Old English (in form cȳta), and is probably of imitative origin and related to German Kauz ‘screech owl’.
as high as a kite intoxicated with drugs or alcohol (the expression is recorded from the mid 20th century).

See also fly a kite at fly2.