Adults have a reddish-brown body plumage contrasting with their white head and breast which make them easy to distinguish from other birds of prey.

In 1760, French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson described and illustrated the Brahminy kite in the first volume of his Oiseaux based on a specimen collected in Pondicherry, India.

[2] The brahminy kite was included by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux.

[3] It was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text.

[6][7] Four subspecies are recognized:[7] The brahminy kite is distinctive and contrastingly coloured, with chestnut plumage except for the white head and breast and black wing tips.

The juveniles are browner, but can be distinguished from both the resident and migratory races of black kites in Asia by the paler appearance, shorter wings, and rounded tail.

[17] It is primarily a scavenger, feeding mainly on dead fish and crabs, especially in wetlands and marshland,[13] but occasionally hunts live prey such as hares and bats.

[20] Brahminy kites have even been recorded taking advantage of Irrawaddy dolphins herding fish to the surface, in the Mekong River.

For the Ibans of the Upper Rajang, Sarawak, Malaysia, a brahminy kite is believed to be the manifestation of Singalang Burung when he comes down to earth.