The Kite hovers in the sky, its head motionless in the air, its wings beating --gaze fixed on the swampy grassland below, looking for movement: a vole? I saw no successful hunt this morning. 9:04:39 am. The English word "kite" was first applied to a cousin of this bird -- only later to the paper-and-stick, string-tethered windcatcher that hovers and flaps in the sky, like this kite.