4 replies to this topic

[meghann]

I've been seeing these a lot lately, but it's always just one, usually in the afternoon flying over our house on its way somewhere else.

However, this evening I looked up and at first thought a group of turkey vultures was circling above, until I noticed the wing shape and proportions were all wrong. Binoculars confirmed what I thought. . .it was a group of Mississippi Kites circling together. It wasn't a big group (4-6), but it still struck me as odd, as I've never seen them do this before.

What were they doing? Is it odd like I thought, or is this a normal thing I've just never noticed before?

[MrPC]

In 2010, I first noticed that MS Kites had occupied my neighborhood. In 2011, I spent quite a bit of time observing/photographing/videoing a mated pair that nested about 200 feet from my front door - about 25-35 feet up and 150 feet away. They successfully raised one chick. That same pair returned to the same nest site this year.

I've seen the group circle thing happen a good bit. It seems as though it happens when they first arrive in the area and again when the fledglings take flight. It almost seems that the gatherings are purely social activities. I have seen as many as eight or ten or as few as four in a group circling about. It seems to happen most frequently an hour or two before dusk. And the bigger groups seem to happen later in the season, when all the fledglings are strong enough to fly a longer distance to meet up with other mated pairs and their young. Maybe they are introducing the young ones to each other as potential mates.

Another interesting thing I've noticed is that when a mated pair searches for the flying insects they eat, they will search the same area but one will always stay above the other by at least fifty to a hundred feet. They will alternate positions, so it's not a dominance thing. I think they purposefully stay separated vertically so they don't see the same insect and dive/fly for it simultaneously.

Also, I think the one you see flying over "on its way somewhere else" is returning to a nest site. The ones nesting near me cover a good several miles radius each day and tend to have medium-term habits, that is they will follow a general pattern of starting in the westerly direction for morning feeding and then flying to the east side of their range in the afternoon. Then, a week or two or three later, the whole pattern will change, starting to the northeast in the morning and then going southeast in the evening, for example.

I think they are beautiful birds. ANd they can fly like no others I've seen here in central Mississippi. I have a video from last year of one doing a double barrel roll, seemingly just for the fun of it or to show off.

http://www.whatbird....6_4658_3028.jpg

[TheBillyPilgrim]

Most of my sightings of Mississippi Kites have been in small groups (4-10). I've always thought they had just found a favorable thermal and were feeding together on it.

[MrPC]

Yes, that makes very good sense, TheBillyPilgrim. Food. Much better explanation, I think, than just social activity. If the thermal takes insects with it, which I'm sure it must, it makes sense that they would hang around and circle in the thermal. It reminds me of a certain area off the NE US coast where the deep waters rise up because of the underwater geography, and whales feed there because of it. I can't rmember the name of that underwater feature off th etop of m head...

[meghann]

Food would make sense. It was just an odd sight for me, as I've been seeing them for months, and it's never been more than one at a time until that day. (Haven't seen more than one since that day, either.)