Hawk-like Birds

Swallow-tailed Kite Coragyps atratus

Description

22-24" (56-61 cm). W. 4' 2" (1.3 m). A graceful bird of prey, with long pointed wings and deeply forked tail; head and underparts white; back, wings, and tail black.

Habitat

Swamps, marshes, river bottoms, and glades in open forests.

Nesting

2-4 creamy-white eggs, boldly marked with brown, in a stick nest often lined with Spanish moss and usually in a tall tree.

Range Breeds mainly on or near coasts from Texas east to Florida, and north to South Carolina; local farther inland in Gulf states. Winters in American tropics. Also breeds in tropics. Voice A shrill klee-klee-klee.

Discussion

The Swallow-tailed Kite is the most aerial of our birds of prey. It catches much of its insect food on the wing, snatches lizards from the trunks of trees, eats what it has caught while flying, drinks by skimming the surface of ponds and marshes, and even gathers nesting material by breaking dead twigs from the tops of trees as it flies past. Formerly more abundant, this distinctive bird nested as far north as Minnesota and Illinois, but habitat destruction and indiscriminate shooting reduced it to its present range.