Fall Migration

A Fortunate Encounter

Betsy Cross

Beginning in early August, all Mississippi Kites, adults and juveniles, begin their migration to wintering areas in South America east of the Andes. By the time they reach South Texas, they are gathered in large flocks similar to those formed by Swainson’s and Broad-winged Hawks. These flocks may number in the hundreds and thousands of kites and might pass key concentration points like Veracruz in a single day. —Birds of Prey by Pete Dunne

The Bird Migration Explorer by Audubon

Just last month, Audubon launched a new migratory bird tracking platform, the Bird Migration Explorer. With this tool, you can choose a bird species, such as the Mississippi Kite, and it will generate an interactive version of the map showing the bird’s migratory pattern through an annual cycle. Read more about it here.

The kite’s summer range in North America is shown in green. Its winter range in South America is blue.

Zooming in slightly, the map reveals a series of colored circles that illustrate the kites’ abundance across the geography. Pausing the timeline on **August 30-September 6**, you can see that kite populations in the U.S. and Texas were “Very Low.” The first flocks of kites to leave their summer homes have concentrated in Costa Rica and Panama. A second concentration of migrating kites have arrived in and around Mexico City. These observations tell me that by the first week in September, the kites had largely moved out of the U.S. and were making their way through Central America and had arrived at the northern border of South America.

From August 1-19, 2022, a HawkWatch International crew in Corpus Christi had counted 1,100 different birds, 90% of which were Mississippi Kites and Swallow-tailed Kites.

At 5:30 p.m. on September 4, about two dozen Mississippi Kites swooped, swirled, dipped, and dived through the street in front of my house. A few of them touched down briefly, landing in the tops of trees and on power lines to rest and feed.

In a closer cropped shot, this kite appeared to be clutching a dragonfly.

According to All About Birds, “Mississippi Kites feed on medium-sized and large insects—such as beetles, leafhoppers, and grasshoppers—along with a variety of frogs, toads, lizards, turtles, snakes, small birds, terrestrial mammals, and bats. Often seen hunting in the company of other kites, they search for prey while soaring over woodlands, water, farmland, pasture, prairie, or (less frequently) from an exposed perch. With acrobatic maneuvers they extend one or both feet to grab prey from the air or from trees, shrubs, tall plants, and other objects on the ground, and they often eat their prize while still flying.”

Pete Dunne in *Birds of Prey* states that dragonflies are an important prey during migration and in South America.

…within minutes, these high flyers were back on their way.

Some Good News

The population of Mississippi Kites appears to be on the rise according to recent counts during hawkwatches along the Gulf Coast and in Mexico. The Veracruz numbers—August through November—had been averaging around 210,000 until 20I3 and 2014, when they jumped to 329,592 and 362,514 respectively. (Reference: Birds of Prey (2016) by Pete Dunne.)