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Juvenile mississippi kite9/2/2023 ![]() ![]() Female: Heavily streaked on buffy body white stripe over eye white band across black tail. Male: All black except for broad white band across base of tail legs, bill, and face red. Suggests Northern Harrier at a distance, but with broader wings and without gliding, tilting flight flies more floppily on cupped wings, head down, searching for snails. S N AIL KIT E Rostrhamus soríabilis Scarce, local M1U2ġ7 in. May form communal roosts at night in nonbreeding season. Open groves, river valleys, marshes, grasslands, roadsides. voice: Whistled kew kew kcw, abrupt or drawn out. Juvenile: Like adult, but has rusty breast, brown back, and narrow dark band near tip of pale grayish tail. Overhead, shows oval black patch at carpal joint ("wrist") of underwing. Large black patch on fore edge of upperwing is obvious on perched birds. Adult: Pale gray above, with white head, underparts, and tail. Soars and glides like a small gull often hovers. This whitish kite is falcon-shaped, with long pointed wings and long white tail that is slightly notched, not forked. WHITE-TAILED KITE Elanus leucurus(seealsop. habitat: Nests in riparian woodlands, residential areas, groves, shelterbelts. voice: Usually silent near nest, a two-syllable phee-phew. Juvenile: Heavily streaked on rusty underparts. Immature: Lacks pale patch on wing, has weak white bands on tail. Broad white patch shows on rear edge of upperwing (not visible from below on birds soaring overhead). No other falconlike bird has black unbarred tail. Adult: Dark above, lighter below head pale gray tail and undcrwing blackish. habitat: Wooded river swamps and pine lands, where it feeds mainly on snakes. Note blue-black uppcrparts, clean white head and underparts, and long, mobile, deeply forked tail, voice: Shrill, keen ce-ee-ee or pee-pee-pee. A sleek, elegant, black-and-white hawk that flies with incomparable grace. SWALLOW-TAILED KITE Elanoidesforficatus Uncommon MHOĢ2-23 in. Snail Kite and Hook-billed Kite specialize in snails. species (except Snail Kite and Hook-billed Kite) are falcon-shaped with pointed wings. The Mississippi kites will be migrating to the tropics soon, and the young will need to fly with their families to find their way to their winter home.Graceful birds of prey of southern distribution. If there is no injury, it is very important to leave the kite where it is so that the parents can continue to bring food. If the kite has an obvious injury, a licensed wildlife rehabilitator can be contacted to take the bird for treatment. If it is in a street and can be caught safely, carefully move the bird to a nearby yard or alley.ĭon’t try to help a young kite learn to fly by throwing it in the air – this could injure the bird. Try to keep dogs and cats away to avoid injuring the bird. If you find a young kite, the best thing to do is to leave it where you find it. There have been many reports of these birds being found by concerned citizens who want to help them. It can take several days for a juvenile kite to learn how to fly. ![]() ![]() They leave their nests, and often hop around on the ground flapping their wings in an effort to get airborne. Residents in Edmond also have been finding young kites.Īs the summer comes to a close, the young kites that were born this season are learning to fly. These small raptors often nest in western and central Oklahoma towns and the refuge has been getting numerous reports of people finding the fledling birds in places such as Clinton and Weatherford. Kites can be very protective of their nests, and many people have experienced their well-known dive-bombing when they get too close to a nest. The Washita National Wildlife Refuge wants to pass on information about Mississippi kites, gray hawks that are slightly smaller than a crow. ![]()
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