1 seconds but
this average included a few relatively long stops, up to four minutes
in length, and 60 per cent of the visits were for intervals of 30
seconds or less.

Insects often protruded from the bills of the adult kites delivering
food, but most of the food was carried in the throat. Sometimes the
gorge was much distended, although nothing protruded from the mouth.
The adult upon alighting sometimes would pass food to the nestling,
and sometimes would disgorge a mass of food in the nest in front of
the nestling. When the young were small, the adult after having
disgorged a food mass, remained to pick up the food, bit by bit, and
place it in the mouth of the nestling. However, after the young were
partly feathered out the adult merely left the food for them. The
nestling sometimes would peck at the disgorged material for several
minutes after the adult left before all of the food was eaten.

The small nestlings are generally silent, but when handled or
otherwise disturbed, they give soft lisping peeps. By early August,
when the young have ventured from the nest bowl to nearby branches,
they become vocal and their calls can be heard more often than those
of the adults. The call of the adult has been well rendered by Sutton
(1939:43) with the syllables "phee phew"--a whistle in which the first
syllable is short (lasting only about one-fourth of a second) with a
rising inflection, clipped off short, while the second syllable has a
downward inflection, and is drawn out to two or three times the length
of the first syllable. The call of the fledgling is soft, with a
lisping quality; that of the adult is much like it but is sharper and
more piercing. Fledglings call frequently while waiting to be fed, but
as an adult approaches with food, the calls are given in rapid
succession and slurred to a high thin squablike squeaking or
squealing.

When fledglings are able to fly and have left the nest, the adults
generally pass food to them directly, rather than dropping the
regurgitated mass, which might fall to the ground and be lost. On
August 22 a fledgling was seen following an adult in flight, and was
also seen to eat while it was flying. At this stage, when an adult fed
one young of a brood, the other would sometimes fly to the spot in an
attempt to share the meal. However, the transfer of food was usually
rapid and the adult would leave within a few seconds. Young often were
seen to fly out from the nest tree and mane