Fieldwork for this study involved extensive searches for Mississippi kites and their nests, careful monitoring of nesting activity, and measurement of nest-site vegetation characteristics in order to determine the species’ preferred breeding habitat.

The study was funded in part by Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act Project W-190-R.Īs a Master’s student in the Eichholz lab at SIU, I have spent the past two breeding seasons examining questions related to the distribution, abundance and habitat selection of Mississippi kites in southern Illinois with the ultimate goal of providing data that will inform management decisions regarding the species status in the state. Mike Eichholz of the Cooperative Wildlife Research Laboratory at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale to conduct a study on Mississippi kites in southern Illinois. Since state law requires scientific evidence to change a species’ conservation status, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources partnered with Dr.

There is extensive anecdotal evidence suggesting a large population of kites in the state’s southern counties, especially those bordering the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. In Illinois, Mississippi kites are currently listed as state-threatened, although many Illinois birders might be surprised by that listing. Mississippi kites are now listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as Least Concern federally and in most states as their populations continue to thrive. It is likely that those same changes in land-use practices that initially caused the species to decline eventually created new opportunities for foraging and nesting as fields were left to fallow and forests allowed to regrow. By the 1950s, however, Mississippi kite populations in the east began rebounding. This dramatic decline is primarily attributed to habitat loss following widespread clearing of forests for agricultural practices. In southern Illinois, where Mississippi kites were common as late as the 1870s, they had “virtually disappeared” by the late 1920s.

Beginning in the early 1900s, reports of widespread decline of the eastern population began surfacing. While Mississippi kite populations in the Great Plains and southwest grew and expanded geographically throughout the 1800s and 1900s, the story differed to the east.Īlthough records are scarce, the species was thought to be abundant in the southeast and Mississippi Alluvial Valley throughout the 1800s. The natural history and population dynamics of the species vary between the eastern and western portions of their breeding range. Arriving to their breeding grounds already paired between April and May, they remain in North America until late August when they depart for their wintering grounds in central South America. Mississippi kites breed throughout the American southeast, Mississippi Alluvial Valley, Great Plains and into the American southwest however, records of breeding pairs far outside their historic range are becoming increasingly common. Mississippi kites frequently return to successful nest sites multiple years in a row. They build loose nests from large twigs in a wide variety of tree species and at varying heights and in Illinois prefer tall trees such as sweetgum, maple and sycamore. Highly social by nature, Mississippi kites sometimes feed gregariously and can occasionally be found nesting in loose colonies. These sleek birds of prey are renowned for their buoyant and graceful flying ability, sometimes being described as “floating on air.” They are aerial insectivores, feeding primarily on large flying insects and hunting either by hawking from a perch or, more often, on-the-wing while soaring.

Mississippi kites are crow-sized neotropical-migrant raptors, easily identified by their striking gray and silver plumage, long, pointed wings, and square-tipped tail. The spectacle lasted until our road ended and the drove of birds slowly moved northward, continuously feeding as they traveled up the Mississippi River. Although not a particularly vocal species, the air was filled with a cacophony of their distinct “Phee-phew” calls as the massive kettle of kites feasted. After a few moments, we were surrounded by more than 150 Mississippi kites in the middle of a feeding frenzy, swooping and barrel-rolling to catch dragonflies then consuming their prey mid-flight. We pulled onto a farm road to observe the aerial acrobatics more closely when we noticed a second kite, then a third. As we drove, my technician spotted a solitary Mississippi kite hunting over a fallow agricultural field. One hot July day while conducting fieldwork in far southern Illinois, we witnessed a breathtaking natural phenomenon.

Mississippi kite nest clayton mo