Kites and Fish-Eagles

The true kites are the raptors that learned to live with us. Black Kites hang over Indian cities in numbers that would be extraordinary anywhere else, riding thermals off hot roofs, quartering rubbish tips, taking scraps from the air above markets. Familiarity has made them almost invisible — most people in an Indian city look up at a dozen a day and register none of them.

That familiarity is worth using rather than dismissing. A bird this common gives you unlimited attempts at the difficult things: the twist as it takes food from water, the mid-air pass between two birds, the moment of landing. The kite is where you practise on raptors before you meet one you will only see once.

The fish-eagles at the other end of the group are the opposite proposition. Large, tied to particular rivers and lakes, and several of them in serious trouble.