Swallow-tailed Kites are large but slender and buoyant raptors. They have long, narrow, pointed wings, slim bodies, and a very long, deeply forked tail. The bill is small and sharply hooked. These birds are creatures of the air, spending most of their day aloft and rarely flapping their wings. They tend to circle fairly low over trees as they hunt for small animals in the branches. Swallow-tailed Kites primarily eat flying insects, but during the breeding season they also hunt small vertebrates, including tree frogs, lizards, nestling birds, and snakes. Adults typically consume their food while flying. Nesting and foraging habitat includes slash pine wetlands, edges of pine forest, cypress swamps, wet prairies, freshwater and brackish marshes, hardwood hammocks, and mangrove forests. The highly specialized Snail Kite flies on broad wings over tropical wetlands as it hunts large freshwater snails. Unlike most other raptors, after nesting, most kites roost in the evening with herons, ibises, vultures, Wood Storks, or Anhingas. The U.S. population of Snail Kites is estimated at 1,000 birds and is listed as endangered. The size of the Florida population has varied greatly, from a low of about 65 birds in 1972 to a high of about 3,000 in 1999. These numbers widespread destruction of freshwater wetlands in the 19th and 20th centuries. Snail Kites occur chiefly in freshwater marshes, lakes, sloughs, and wet prairies in southern Florida. They feed almost entirely on freshwater apple snails. They forage from perches or while flying slowly above shallow, clear, open water, watching for snails. Snail Kites sometimes try to steal apple snails from Limpkins. On rare occasions, particularly during droughts, Snail Kites take other prey such as small freshwater turtles, crayfish, snakes, or fish. (Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
