![]() Grebesĭiving birds with lobed feet and tufted tails. Red-throated loons are also rare winter visitors on the northern gulf coast. The common loon inhabits the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico from November through April. Heavy diving birds with spear-shaped bills and webbed feet set far back on their bodies. Their mostly dark plumage occasionally exhibits colorful metallic hues in sunlight. Wild turkeys are most commonly found in or near forests and swamps throughout the state. Winters bring more than 15 other visiting species, such as pintails, American wigeon and more. Among the most popular are the Florida mottled duck, wood duck, and black-bellied and fulvous whistling ducks. Water birds with short legs and webbed-front toes. Here's a general guide to our feathered families in taxonomical order, according to their natural relationships.įind out even more at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. ![]() Swallow-tailed kites are members of Accipitridae, the hawks and eagles family.A quick reference to the birds of Florida, from the common to the rare.įlorida's diverse habitats are home to a wide variety of plumed citizens, from tiny hummingbirds to huge herons and seed-eating buntings to predatory hawks. As many as 2,000 swallow-tailed kites will gather there in late summer before heading south for the winter. ![]() The package as a whole makes swallow-tailed kites unmistakable.Īccording to the Great Florida Birding Trail, one of the best places to see this bird is the Fisheating Creek Wildlife Management Areas in Glades County. The deep, V-shaped tail - a key to their incredible flying abilities - is black. They are striking in the sky, with their white bodies and heads, white on the leading edge of their wings, black on the trailing edge. They are fairly large birds, going about 19 inches in length and with a wingspan of about four feet. The hatchlings are nest-bound for the first four or five weeks they will make their first flight after five or six. Females handle most of the incubation duties while the male brings food. We took the photos in Everglades National Park, the first swallowed-tail kite we had ever seen.įemales generally lay two eggs per clutch, sometimes more, sometimes only one. The kite in two of the photos below (center and right) grabbed Spanish moss off a tree as we watched. Both sexes build the nest, made of sticks and lined with Spanish moss or lichens. They nest as high as 60 feet in the air atop a pine or cypress in open woodlands. Swallow-tailed kites will eat on the fly, picking off insects mid-air or swooping to grab a lizard off a tree top, but they'll also snatch snakes and frogs off the ground. They'll nest in small, loose colonies, then gather in large numbers at "staging areas" in South Florida for the return trip south. Swallow-tailed kites are seen in parts of the Caribbean during migration. There is a swallow-tailed kite population that lives year-round in South America, including Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela. Where they come from and where they go, is something of a mystery. They come here to breed, arriving in March and leaving in August and September. They're rarely seen in parts of coastal Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina. Now, about the only place you expect to see them is Florida, from the central part of the state through the Keys. Perhaps it was because he (or she) moved so slowly overhead, almost pausing in mid-air, while showing off his (her) graceful form and flight.Īt one time, swallow-tailed kites, Elanoides forficatus, were a common sight throughout the Southeast, and in fact, were known to inhabit 21 states, ranging as far north as Minnesota. Perhaps it was the setting where we first spotted one, the bright blue of the early evening in Everglades National Park. Seeing this bird, a swallow-tailed kite, tops them all.
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