Swallow-tailed kites crowd a treetop at the roost along the Altamaha River (Tim Keyes/DNR)įrom their graceful, swivel-tailed flights to vivid black-and-white markings, swallow-tailed kites are must-see raptors. But it was in the last stretch of a 10,000-mile migration loop.- Sobering totals from rainy bat blitz RECORD KITE ROOST FOUND It may have made a 400-mile arc across the Gulf of Mexico. It may have crossed the 90 miles from Cuba. ![]() It would be impossible to say which route was taken by the bird I saw on Big Pine the other day. The bird stayed aloft for five-and-a-half days, traveling over 1,200 miles, before finally making it to Texas. At least not until last August, when a bird they’d dubbed Sanibel South made it to within 50 miles of the Mexican shoreline before getting blown off course. ARCI has never seen a bird fly for three or four days over the water before losing the signal, presumably because of mortality. While swallow-tails are incredibly good at making their way across the ocean, they do occasionally get caught by unfavorable winds and stuck out there. (Check out if you really want to go down the rabbit hole on swallow-tailed kite migration.) The folks at the lean, mean, ornithological studies machine that is the Avian Research and Conservation Institute in Gainesville have been using satellite trackers to follow migrating swallow-tailed kites for nearly 25 years. We see many more of them in the fall than spring, making the bird I saw a near rarity, season-wise. Some years we see a lot of them in the Keys some years, hardly any. If they fly over water, that’s fine, too. ![]() It’s a whole different level of reading the physical world.Īs a result, swallow-tailed kites are less particular about their routes. I always think of the rock climbers who can find the most subtle foot- and finger-holds on a sheer granite face. They’re good at riding the wind and finding thermals other birds can’t. Swallow-tailed kites don’t really do the whole powered-flapping thing, at least not for any sustained period. It’s the reason we get so many raptors migrating through the Keys every fall – the birds want to stay over land as long as possible and minimize the risk that comes with flying over water. Thermals weaken dramatically over water, and since they won’t survive landing in the ocean, they rely on powered flight, flapping to get where they’re going. But when they need to cross a body of water, their methods change. ![]() ![]() This will get them across an entire continent without exhausting them. Most raptors, when they migrate, follow the same energy-efficient pattern, finding hot air thermals to ride up on, then gliding forward toward their destination until they find the next good thermal. When they get ready to migrate south they gather in huge roosts of hundreds of birds, gorging themselves for a month on insects and the occasional unsuspecting lizard snagged from the treetops. Their range used to extend as far north as Minnesota and Wisconsin, but habitat loss – they need tall trees in swamps to nest – has greatly curtailed that. The American population of swallow-tailed kites lives mostly in Florida, but their range extends up to Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. They spend their lives in the treetops and in the air, and don’t find much occasion to come down to the ground and slum with the likes of us flightless bipeds.īut they’re also some of the most casually bad-ass migrants around. Plus, they give a dog-like yip sometimes when they fly. There’s that long, v-shaped tail, the forward sweeping wings, the sharp black-and-white plumage, the old soul face. Swallow-tailed kites are just damn cool birds. I might have said “Welcome back” out loud as it went.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |