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  Profile

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  In flight

Birds of Prey

White-tailed Kite

Elanus leucurus

• uncommon
• 40 km/h
• Least Concern

Hovers in place over grasslands like a kite on a string. Once nearly gone, now back over California oil-field edges.

Habitat

Open grasslands, savanna-like scrub, marshes, and open agricultural/river-valley country with scattered nesting trees

Fun fact

The White-tailed Kite is famous for "kiting" — hovering almost motionless on rapidly beating wings while facing into the wind to scan the ground below for rodents before folding its wings and diving to strike with its talons.

Range

Pacific coast, southern Texas, and southern Florida in the US through Mexico and Central America to central Chile and Argentina; recovered from near-extinction in North America in the early 20th century and has since expanded into Oregon, Washington, and beyond

Diet

Carnivorous — primarily small rodents (voles, mice, gophers) plus shrews, small reptiles, amphibians, and insects, rarely other birds

Size

0.38 m

Wingspan

1 m