Swallow-tailed Kites in Ohio: UPDATED!

 

UPDATE: Shortly after I made this post, another Swallow-tailed Kite turned up at the Perry County site that is the main subject of this post. As of 8/21/2022, there are now three kites at this spot. And yet another Swallow-tailed Kite came to light on August 20, in Henry County. It is still there as of this update (8/22/2022. So that's four confirmed kites in Ohio as of now.

Typical agricultural land just north of Somerset, Ohio, in Perry County. I was at this spot last Thursday, August 18, to view a pair of very special birds. The following shots were all made from this spot, or close to it.

On August 14, Susannah Hopkins discovered two Swallow-tailed Kites (Elanoides forficatus) in this area, and they remain to the present. Many people have visited to see the spectacular raptors. A book project and some other stuff prevented me from going for five days, but I was keen to see the birds, and especially the site. I know that area of Perry County well, and there is nothing particularly striking here from a habitat perspective - much of the land is highly agricultural. But clearly it is to the kites' liking, and that means food abounds. More on that later.

One of the kites make a pass. This is a large raptor, with a four-foot+ wingspan, unmistakable patterning and that diagnostic long forked tail. It would be hard to mistake a Swallow-tailed Kite for anything else. "Kite" comes from their buoyancy and aerial prowess. Indeed, the kites we fly tethered to strings are named for the bird kites. As a point of comparison, another notable aerialist, the Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus), has a wingspan nearly a foot shorter, is half a foot shorter in length, yet weighs nearly double that of a Swallow-tailed Kite. The kite weighs less than a pound, contributing to its extraordinary maneuverability and overall flying prowess.

This species has an interesting history in Ohio (and the Midwest). The earliest ornithologists described it as locally common in several areas of Ohio in the early 1800's. There were records from at least nine counties with southwest Ohio especially noted as a hotspot. As Ohio was not nearly as well "birded" two centuries ago as it is today, there were surely Swallow-tailed Kites nesting in many other areas of the state that were not documented. These were breeders near the northern limits of the range, although some kites nested all the way to southern Minnesota and Wisconsin. In general, Swallow-tailed Kites had a classic U-shaped distribution pattern shared by scores of animal and plant species: along the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains, and into the interior via the Mississippi River and its larger drainages, like the Ohio River.

By the 1850's, it was clear that kites were in decline in Ohio and other northern haunts. Habitat destruction - kites favor old bottomland forests and other semi-open woodlands - was in full swing, transforming Ohio from a state that was close to 95% forested to a low of 10% forest by the early 1900's.

Another factor that probably played a large role was persecution, and in the case of this insect-eating raptor, persecution of the most ignorant sort. Swallow-tailed Kites were - and are - fairly tame and approachable, which made them easy to shoot. Witness this quote from John James Audubon, writing in the early 19th century (when this species was known as the Swallow-tailed Hawk): "When one is then killed and falls to the ground, the whole flock comes over the dead bird, as if intent upon carrying it off. An excellent opportunity is thus afforded of shooting as many as may be wanted, and I have killed several of these Hawks in this manner, firing as fast as I could load my gun." (Kites form flocks prior to migrating south to South American wintering grounds). Audubon wasn't the only one blasting kites, and such wanton and utterly unjustifiable shooting surely played a role in their disappearance from some regions.

The Perry County pair courses about during some playful aerial dogfighting. To watch Swallow-tailed Kites sky-dancing and otherwise engaged in flight is to watch one of the bird world's greatest aerialists plying its trade. Early in the morning, when conditions are cooler and thermals have not yet created their invisible turbulence, the kites will often rest in trees. Once the updrafts form, they frequently loaf aerially, drifting about with nary a wingbeat, only that long forked rudder of a tail twisting to flick them into a new course. They'll rise until they're just specks, then shoot down hundreds of feet in a flash only to rocket skyward to their original altitude moments later. High-flying Turkey Vultures seemed to be investigated occasionally, and I couldn't help to wonder if anything was being said up there. At one point, one of the local American Kestrels went up to engage the pair, and I'd bet they were laughing at the feisty little falcon. It'd gain altitude and stoop at a kite, which would effortlessly flick out of the way at the last instant. I imagine the kestrel's heroics provided amusing sport for them.

It wasn't until 1975, in Sandusky County, that Ohio had a 20th century record. Fourteen years later, 1989, another appeared in Ashtabula County. Our next record came in fall of 1997, in Holmes County, and that one lingered for almost two weeks and was seen by scores of birders, your narrator included.

In 2006, Swallow-tailed Kites appeared in Lorain and Mahoning counties, but the modern-day spate of kite sightings commenced in 2012 with another Holmes County bird. Following that came the following records (by county. all are of single birds unless otherwise noted):

2013: Champaign, Clermont

2014: Highland, Lawrence

2016: Holmes, Montgomery

2019: Knox (2 birds), Montgomery

2020: Coshocton, Crawford, Fayette, Licking

2021: Lake

2022: Perry (three birds), Henry

It's not hard to see the upward trajectory, and the increase in kite records may be a precursor to what happened with the Mississippi Kite (Ictinia mississippiensis) which began nesting in Ohio in 2007 (at least that's when they were discovered) and is now a very rare but regular breeder in probably a few locales. Their pattern mirrored that of the Swallow-tailed Kite, it just commenced earlier. I wrote about Mississippi Kites HERE. What a great thing it would be, to have Swallow-tailed Kites back nesting in Ohio, and I think that day is coming.

A nymph Two-striped Grasshopper (Melanoplus bivittatus) on a soybean leaf. Note the insect's tiny wing buds. It'll get much larger. Adults are a bit over two inches in length, perfect for a kite meal.

After a few days of reports, when I saw that these kites were staying in place, I wondered what was keeping them there. Swallow-tailed Kites are highly insectivorous, and cicadas, dragonflies, and grasshoppers are dietary staples. Well, it didn't take long after arrival at the site to see that there were scads of Two-striped Grasshoppers in the bean fields. And the kites made frequent swoops low over the beans like giant grasshopper terns, plucking victims and eating them on the wing. These grasshoppers - I did not notice other species but didn't look too hard - were clearly a favored prey item and the birds wouldn't run dry. Two-lined Grasshoppers apparently have boom and bust years, and this must be a boom. While I only peered into the beans from the edges of the field, there might have been a grasshopper or two in every square foot. As all the surrounding roadside vegetation had recently been mowed, that might have forced even more grasshoppers into the bean fields. Whatever the case, the kites were frequently grabbing them, and they'll not go hungry here. A number of migratory Black Saddlebags and Wandering Glider dragonflies passed by as well, providing the birds with dietary diversity.

Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope for Ohio's first modern nesting record of Swallow-tailed Kites in some upcoming year.