The distinctive Mississippi Kite is a bird that many out-of-state birders looks for when they visit Oklahoma in the summer. The good news: it’s not hard to find one! This kite is a very familiar sight in the skies above Oklahoma City as it soars and catches cicadas. It is a migrant, arriving in late April and leaving in October. And it is quite infamous for protecting its nest by attacking golfers or people walking in parks! All of that is “normal” behavior — what I observed last week when I found a pair of Mississippi Kites at Lake Hefner was very abnormal. I watched one of the kites eat a bird. This may not sound unusual for a raptor but I learned that my photos of the meal were only the second documented evidence in Oklahoma of a Mississippi Kite preying on a bird. Berlin Heck, a retired wildlife manager and expert on Oklahoma birds, published a report in 2005 about possible incidents of the kites predating other birds and found only one other photo of this happening. It’s uncertain why a bird that is known to eat only insects would change its behavior. I sent my photo to Berlin and he suspects the prey was a fledgling that fell out of the nest and was an appealing target to a kite entering mating season. It makes sense… I wonder, though, if our unusually wet weather has disminished the cicada and grasshopper populations (although other insects are plentiful this year!). I would enjoy hearing from others about normal / abnormal behaviors of this fascinating species!
Update on July 1, 2007: The photo above doesn’t show many of the Mississippi Kite’s identifying features so I can understand Ridgeline’s comments that it might be a White-tailed Kite. I can’t easily include photos in comments, so I’m adding some additional information here and another photo to clarify my ID. The photo was taken immediately after the bird finished eating. This photo shows the underside of the kite’s wings and tail. They lack the distinctive white plummage with black wrist spots of the White-tailed Kite. I’ve photographed a white-tailed only once: 2003 at Fort Sill. The top photo also shows that the bird does not have the black shoulder patches of the white-tailed.
I think this is a White Tailed Kite–not a Mississippi Kite. I photographed one here in Broken Arrow yesterday.
http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i3280id.html
http://www.texasbirding.net/birds/wtkite.htm
http://digital.library.okstate.edu/ornithology/pdf/oosv16p009.pdf
Thanks for posting this picture. There has been some kind of very light colored raptor flying around our place on the North Canadian River near Pierce, Oklahoma. So far, I have not been able to grab a good picture but now I at least have an idea what kind of bird it might be!
The first picture in this post looks amazingly like one a friend took in Bent County, CO recently. Their website is stockerphotos.com.
If you click through the links to the Colorado photos, you can find the kite in the Bent County photos.
BTW, found your site while doing a search on “Cooper’s Hawk Life Cycle.”
We’ve been watching a family of 5 Cooper’s this summer in a local park in Denver.
I have a Mississippi Kite fledgling (fully feathered) on the ground in my backyard. I appears to be healthy. I do not know if it fell out or tried to fly out of its nest. It’s been on the ground since yesterday and continuously calls for its parents. Should I do any thing?
e2okie: I’m uncertain what would be the best course of action for the fledgling kite. If adults are feeding it, the young bird may do well on the ground. If you haven’t seen any adults caring for it, the young bird may be in danger. I strongly recommend you contact WildCare, the wildlife rehabilitation facility in Noble. They are very experienced with these issues. Their number: 405-872-9338. I look forward to an update!
Apparently they like the occasional fledgling. There are a lot of bloggers blogging about seeing Mississippi Kites snatching fledglings from their yards to the point that it sounds rather common.
I’ve received input from several birders familiar with Mississippi Kites and there seems to be a correlation between kites preying on birds and a lack of cicadas and other insects. I recently saw a kite carrying a small bird to the exact area where I photographed this picture one year ago. Do kites return to the same nesting areas every year? I now wonder if some kites are, by preference, meat eaters?! Although the cicada population is very low so far this year. Any thoughts?
It has been about a month since I checked in, so I was excited to see a 3rd bird cam in action when I looked today! You have given me some inspiration, which is to place food a little closer to our bird bath. We seem to get pretty slow traffic at our bird bath, even though it has a dripper on it, which I assumed would bring more traffic.
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Anderson smith
Addiction Recovery Mississippi
I live in Broken arrow ok and not 5 min ago i witnessed one of our regular mississipi kites swoop down and catch a medium sized bird. It flew away immediatly with two starlings attacking it from the back. 2-3 minutes later there was 10-12 kites flying over our house. We thought they only ate insects, but they have now proven us wrong. 8-3-08 11:05 am
The clarity of the picture is really great. We look forward to such quality pictures from you. The documentation is also well written. Keep the good work going.
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Vanessa
Mississippi Treatment Centers