They may also feed on small amphibians such as frogs, large insects, crickets, small birds and small mammals including bats. Juveniles are streaky, with brownish chests and underwings, and banded tails. Though known for their graceful, acrobatic flight, Mississippi Kites also spend time foraging on the ground and in shallow water.īoth species of kite feed on the wing, snatching dragonflies and other insects out of the sky and eating them while still in flight. They are an inky mix of gray and black, lightening to pale gray-white on the head and in the secondaries of the wings. The strongly hooked bill is small and delicate. The tail is fairly long and square-tipped. Mississippi Kites are a slender and much smaller raptor with long, pointed wings. The species is now listed as endangered in South Carolina. They rarely flap their wings instead soar effortlessly, changing course with minute adjustments of their distinctive forked tails. This large raptor is built like a glider with huge wings and small streamlined bodies. From below, the wing linings are white and the flight feathers are black. Its most unique characteristic is the elongated, forked tail (hence its name). Swallow-tailed Kites are a sharp contrast of bright-white head and underparts and gleaming black wings, back, and tail. They have long, narrow, pointed wings, slim bodies, and a very long, deeply forked tail. Swallow-tailed Kites are large but slender and buoyant raptors. The two species look quite different from each other and are quite unmistakable from other birds. But have you ever looked up to see either of these birds? Mississippi Kite (left) & Swallow-tailed Kite (right) – Ed Konradīoth of these birds, the Mississippi and the Swallow-tailed Kites, can be seen on Seabrook Island and both within the past two weeks! We’ve seen a Mississippi Kite pair flying over the community garden and over the marshes. Living at a beach community, I’m sure many people are accustomed to looking at kites in the sky along the beach – you know, the kind that Ben Franklin used. Swallow-tailed Kite – Elanoides forficatus (endangered in South Carolina) Mississippi Kite – Ictinia mississippiensis
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