Mississippi Kite

The Mississippi Kite is a slim, elegant raptor with an overall pale to dark gray body, a black tail, and pointed, falcon-shaped wings. Adults have a pale, almost silvery head and a dark mask through the eye, while the wings show a subtle two-toned pattern in flight. Its buoyant, effortless flight style, more like a large swallow or falcon than a typical hawk, is part of what makes it so distinctive.

This kite is a highly aerial hunter, often seen catching large flying insects directly out of the air and eating them on the wing, a behavior that has earned it a reputation as one of the most graceful fliers among North American raptors.

Key Field Marks

• Overall pale to medium gray body, darker gray flight feathers, and a solidly black tail
• Pale, whitish head contrasting with darker back
• Long, pointed wings and a buoyant, tern-like or falcon-like flight
• Frequently seen in small flocks, especially during migration

Similar Species

• White-tailed Kite: white below with black shoulder patches and a white tail, unlike the gray body and black tail of the Mississippi Kite.
• Peregrine Falcon: bulkier with a barred belly and dark hood, and a more powerful, direct flight.
• Merlin: smaller and stockier with heavier streaking below, lacking the kite's uniform gray tones.

Range

Mississippi Kites breed across the southern Great Plains and southeastern United States, from Arizona and Texas east to the Carolinas, with an expanding range into the central Plains and Midwest. They winter in South America.

Habitat

They nest in open woodlands, shelterbelts, riparian corridors, and increasingly in shaded urban and suburban parks and golf courses, especially in Texas and Oklahoma towns, where mature trees provide nest sites near open foraging areas.

Aerial Feeding

Mississippi Kites do most of their foraging on the wing, snatching large insects such as cicadas, dragonflies, and grasshoppers directly out of the air and often eating them in flight without landing.

Voice

The call is a thin, high, whistled "phee-phew" or squeaky two-note note, often given in flight or from a perch near the nest.

Nesting

Pairs build a small stick nest high in a tree, sometimes in loose colonies. They are known to aggressively defend nests against intruders, including swooping at humans who venture too close, and typically raise a single chick per season.