With the Wild Things: Kites

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|a With the Wild Things: Kites |h [electronic resource].

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|a Ft. Myers, Florida : |b Whitaker Center in the College of Arts and Sciences, Florida Gulf Coast University.

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|a 5 podcasts, approximately 1 minute each in length

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|a Please contact the owning institution for licensing and permissions. It is the users responsibility to ensure use does not violate any third party rights.

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|a Source: Kites 1 Length of Segment: 00:01:14 Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. What’s a kite? Sure, it’s one of those kids’ toys that can be made out of paper and sticks and held on a string to catch the wind and climb high, but kites have also inspired poets and scientists like Benjamin Franklin. They’re more than kids’ toys, but fun for all. Kites seem to have had their origin in China more than 3,000 years ago, but long before those Chinese kites, there were other kites that are still with us today: birds we call ‘kites’. Toy kites take their name from the old English word for these birds. Like their toy counterpart, a feathered kite can hang motionless, suspended in the air, then dive and twist and turn without ever flapping its wings. These kites are hawks that feed on insects such as dragonflies and on small lizards and snakes that they deftly pluck from the ground or vegetation as they sail by. Among the most aerially adept and graceful of kites, Florida’s swallow-tailed kite even drinks and bathes on the wing as it swoops and glides, performing tricks on the wing in the course of its daily activities that flyers of those other kites can only dream of.

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|a Source: Kites 2 Length of Segment: 00:01:14 Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. Among the most graceful and beautiful of American birds of prey are the swallowtail kites. Some are residents of Florida and scattered swamps across the southeastern coastal plain. Swallowtail kites typically arrive in South Florida by mid-March from their winter home in the American tropics and leave us by mid-September. While they’re here, these bigger than crow-sized black and white birds with a long black forked tail give chase to dragonflies and other large flying insects and dive to capture lizards, frogs, small snakes, and even small fish and bats. They grasp prey in their feet as they sail by, never landing to eat but rather enjoying meals on the wing. When they arrive in North America, swallowtail kites almost immediately begin courtship and nesting. Nests are often near the tops of tall pines at the edges of cypress swamps. Both members of a pair collect the small twigs, Spanish moss, and lichens used to construct the nest, seizing construction material with their feet as the fly by. Just before landing at the nest site, a kite reaches down and transfers the material to its beak. Nests can be built quickly, sometimes in a little over a day.

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|a Source: Kites 3 Length of Segment: 00:01:15 Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. Ecotourism is alive and well in Florida and no group of animals brings ecotourists to Florida than our birds. Over 700 different kinds of birds can be found in North America and about 400 kinds are known from Florida. A few are rarely seen in North America outside of our state. One of those Florida specialties is the swallow-tailed kite, a spectacular black and white hawk with a long forked tail. The swallowtail kite is known for its buoyant graceful flight, and a lack of fear of humans, such that it can be seen sailing over city streets. What most people don’t realize is that this bird was once found throughout the southeast and up major rivers and far as Nebraska, Minnesota, and Ohio. What happened? Swallowtail kites disappeared as the result of a complex web of interacting factors: clearing of bottomland forest for agriculture, draining of wetlands, indiscriminate shooting of an easy target, and reduction of its food supply as a result of pesticides. For now, the swallowtail kite is a must see bird for ecotourists, a visual reminder of Florida’s natural beauty, and a living barometer of the health of our environment.

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|a Source: Kites 4 Length of Segment: 00:01:14 Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. Although swallowtail kites return to Florida each spring from their winter home in the tropics, we know little about their travels. The earliest birds arrive in southwest Florida, and it may be a week or two before they reach the southeast coast. Two to three weeks later, they reach North Florida. Once here, they sail low over wetlands and other open areas in search of food. On migration, they’re seldom seen; apparently, they fly high, direct, and in small groups. Some have been seen in South America crossing the Andes at altitudes of more than 15,000 feet. What we know about their travels suggests that South Florida swallowtail kites migrate through the Caribbean from South America, whereas North Florida birds make their way overland coming around the Gulf of Mexico, perhaps from a different wintering area. In late summer, swallowtail kites gather in large roosts. One in the Everglades has included more than 2,000 birds, perhaps three-fourths of the North American nesting population. They seem to leave this area in small groups, but the details of their journey remain a mystery. We’ve learned a lot about bird migration, but the swallowtail kite shows us that there is much we need to know.

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|a Source: Kites 5 Length of Segment: 00:01:14 Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. A swallowtail kite is a very specialized hawk, one that seems a real aristocrat among birds. Its white head, belly and wing linings contrast boldly with its black back, upper wings, and long gracefully forked tail. It almost seems to be wearing formal attire. In the air, a swallowtail kite is sheer elegance, able to ride motionless on the wind, dive, turn with precision, and then climb rapidly with only the most gentle of wing and tail movements. Those long tails serve as precision rudders as this kite responds to every nuance of a gentle breeze. So at home in the air are these birds that they even eat and drink as they fly. Swallowtail kites are often very social birds, and when they return in spring from the American tropics, they typically travel in small groups, sometimes including as many as 50 individuals. Soon after their arrival in North America, the groups begin to break up as pairs begin courtship. Courting males and females fly in close formation as they go through spectacular aerobatics, each demonstrating to the other the abilities needed to secure food for hungry young.

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|a kite (birds).

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|a Everglades kite.

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|a With the Wild Things.

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|a Everglades Digital Library: Reclaiming the Everglades