Swallow-tailed Kite

The Swallow-tailed Kite is one of the most graceful and unmistakable raptors in North America, with crisp white head and underparts contrasting against glossy black wings and back, and an extremely long, deeply forked black tail that opens and closes constantly like scissors during flight. In good light the black plumage shows an iridescent greenish sheen.

Its flight is buoyant and acrobatic, full of banking turns, twists, and long glides with barely a wingbeat, making it a favorite of birders in the swamps and river bottoms of the southeastern United States.

Key Field Marks

• Crisp white head, body, and underwing linings contrasting sharply with jet-black flight feathers, back, and tail
• Extremely long, deeply forked tail, unique among North American raptors
• Long, narrow, pointed wings held flat or slightly drooped in flight

Similar Species

• No other North American raptor shares this combination of white body and long forked black tail, making misidentification unlikely once seen well.
• At a distance, silhouette can suggest a large tern or frigatebird, but the kite's steady gliding flight over forest and wetland habitat is distinctive.

Range

Swallow-tailed Kites breed in the southeastern United States, concentrated in Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, and parts of the Gulf Coast, with the core global range extending through Central America into South America. They are long-distance migrants, wintering in South America, primarily Brazil.

Habitat

They favor forested wetlands, cypress swamps, bottomland hardwood forests, and pine flatwoods near rivers, using tall trees for nesting while foraging widely over open and wooded country.

Flight and Foraging

Swallow-tailed Kites forage almost entirely on the wing, snatching insects, small snakes, lizards, frogs, and nestling birds from foliage in low, graceful passes, and often drinking and bathing by skimming the water's surface in flight.

Voice

The call is a high, shrill, chattering "klee-klee-klee," typically given near the nest or in territorial interactions.

Nesting

Nests are built high in the crown of a tall tree, often a pine, and both parents share incubation and feeding duties. After breeding, kites often gather in large communal roosts before migrating south.