Swallow-tailed Kite

 

August 22nd (posted Aug. 23rd)

          Mike and I have been busy visiting with our son Andy and his family from Aug.13th until today.  First, Andy, Brian and Caleb flew in from Baltimore and stayed for a few days.  Then we had a few days alone with our grandson Caleb and Saturday we flew with him back to Baltimore.  Today we came home and landed in Detroit about 2:00pm.

          As you can see, we have been on a birding hiatus, but we kept an eye on the bird sightings.  The most interesting birds were two Swallow-tailed Kites that showed up in Perry County east of Columbus on Aug. 14th and continued to hang around.  Then yesterday another kite showed up much closer to home.  It was seen at the intersection of four counties (Wood, Putman, Hancock, and Henry) about an hour from home.

          We drive home from the airport, changed our clothes, grabbed the binoculars, spotting scope, camera and took off.  We arrived at the four corners location and saw a birder with binoculars up looking high in the sky.  He was looking at the Swallow-tailed Kite.  We kept the kite in our sights and eventually he came down and landed much closer on a dead snag.  We got great views of him perched and also soaring. 

          A Swallow-tailed Kite is one of the most beautiful birds of prey.  It is a slender, buoyant raptor with narrow pointed wings and a deeply forked tail.  It has a contrasting color pattern with bright white head and underparts and gleaming black wings, back and tail.  At one time they were found over much of the southeast in summer but today they are found mostly in Florida and a few areas of the deep south.  However, they can be rare but regular vagrants north of their usual range.

(1 new species, total for the year 289)

Swallow-tailed Kite (very rare)  

                                       Swallow-tailed Kite

                                       Another view

    

 

Comments

  1. AnnAugust 24, 2022 at 4:28 PM

    So glad that you saw this beautiful bird. Great news.

    ReplyDelete

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