in groups, near the highest
branches in an area’s tallest
trees, which are ideally 60 feet
or more in height. While
summering in Florida, the kites
prefer to construct their nests
in cypress, pines, Australian
pines, or other hardwood
trees that are located in or near
wetlands, wooded swamps,
marshlands, hammocks, wet
prairies, riverside forests, or
even agricultural areas. It is
just as well that they vacate our
state and the Tampa Bay area
for winter, since the deciduous
cypress trees in which many
of them build their nests, will
lose their leaves, and thus their
protection in the fall. When the
birds are in their tropical winter
homes to our far south, they
normally gravitate towards the treetops
of lowland rainforests and mountain cloud
forests.
The female and male kites take turns
circling overhead for protection, hunting
for food and sitting on their two, three, or
even four cream-colored eggs with dark
reddish-brown markings for about a month
until they hatch. The female will usually
share feeding and gathering duties with
the male after the first week.
Once hatched, the baby kites are taken
care of for their first week by both parents
before the female takes over, while the male
continues to hunt and provide sustenance.
The surviving light grayish/beige chicks
will explore the nest tree for a little over a
month before starting to fly and continuing
the circle of life.
Swallow-tailed Kites are one of our
Tampa Bay area’s many treasures. Keep
an eye on the sky and listen for their klees,
tew-whees and epps. 9
EDITOR’S NOTE: I need to credit Cyndi
Meinck Simmons and her husband Ernest
C. Simmons, as well as Pinepapple Press’
Common Coastal Birds of Florida and the
Caribbean by David W. Nellis, and Florida’s
Birds by Herbert W. Kale II and David S.
Maehr for providing me with the knowledge to
properly answer our reader’s question.
their way to Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
After surviving their treacherous flights
over the Gulf of Mexico and the Yucatan
Channel, they will rest before heading
further south into Central America. After
going through Guatemala, Honduras,
Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, they
will fly over the Andes Mountains and
through Colombia in order to arrive in
the highlands of Brazil. After spending
the winter months there in the tropics,
the Swallow-tailed Kites will retrace their
flight pattern to make the incredible return
journey to Florida or to their other preferred
nesting areas. This intensely demanding
migration is made possible by the same
gliding, almost motionless flying abilities
that you witnessed and that makes these
birds so incredible to watch.
Upon their return north, Swallow-tailed
Kites that have reached their second year
are ready to mate, build nests and raise
their young as a monogamous family.
Following their courtship, which may
include spectacular aerial acrobatics, chases
and the male feeding the female, a pair
of Swallow-tailed Kites will build their
platform-like nest together stacking twigs
and sticks which they then line with soft
materials, such as lichens, Spanish moss,
or even wasp nests.
Kites normally locate their nests, often
MARCH/APRIL 2018 | TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE 141
off trees, all usually within a
15-mile radius of their own
habitat. They consume their
spoils mid-air, or carry them
in their beaks or talons to their
own nests for consumption and
possible sharing.
If you listen intently, you may
even hear their distinctive calls
of klee, klee, klee for approaching
danger, tew-whee, tew-whee for
courtship and for the resulting
mates and babies, plus epp from
a courting female and later from
her young asking to be fed.
Swallow-tailed Kites were
once seen throughout the
southern United States and in a
total of 16 states, as far north as
Minnesota. Today, however, loss
of nesting and feeding grounds,
due to development and natural
causes, has limited their habitats to a few
southern states. They are designated as
endangered in South Carolina, threatened
in Texas and rare in Georgia. Currently,
they can be seen mostly in Florida in the
Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge
and along our state’s coastal or low-lying
spots, including parts of our own Tampa
Bay area.
This is the perfect time of year to witness
and enjoy the Swallow-tailed Kites’
graceful maneuverings because, unlike
many of our other birds that fly north from
here, the kites fly north to Florida from
South America to arrive here near the end
of February or the beginning of March in
order to spend their springs and summers
with us.
Watch for kites in our skies until
sometime in the late summer or early
fall, when they will head further south to
prepare for winter. These beautiful birds’
approximately 5,000-mile migration to
and from Florida is one of their most
astounding feats. They will flock together
in order to begin their incredible biannual
journeys. When other birds are arriving
here for the winter, kites will fly south
to our state’s southern tip and follow the
Florida Straits to Cuba, where they will
fly along the northern coastline to the
Havana area from which they will make
Ernest C. Simmons, a Florida wildlife artist and
admirer of our local bird populations, painted this
Swallow-tailed Kite as part of his work that graces
this Tampa Bay Magazine issue’s cover.