Polycarp Joseph has been making annual visits to the Shaktikulangara and Vaddy fishing harbours in Kerala’s Kollam district, since 2019, to track birds. On his visits, Joseph, who is a district head for the Kerala State Annual Heronry Survey, an annual citizen-science monitoring project by the Kerala Bird Monitoring Network, counts active nests of the little egret (Egretta garzetta). As part of this monitoring effort, he has visited both harbours after dark to study the effects of nighttime light pollution on these birds.

It was on one such visit that he came across a few brahminy kites (Haliastur indus), a “strictly” diurnal (active during the day) raptor with a distinctive bright white head and rump, scavenging late at night at the Vaddy fishing harbour in Kollam.

If it were late evening hours, he might have assumed that the kites were returning home or making one last foraging attempt, said Joseph. “The harbour [at night] is like a floodlit stadium, with LED lights in the auction yard and on boats, which allows these kites to perceive prey availability,” he added.

On February 5, 2024, from 11pm until 12.30 am, Joseph recorded three brahminy kites flying in short circles above the harbour, diving to scoop fish from boats, and snatching discards from fishers. On...

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