White-tailed Kite, Elanus leucurus |
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![]() We are lucky on the San Francisco Peninsula to have easy access to the beautiful and fierce White-tailed Kite, a year-round resident readily seen in oak savannah countryside, and not infrequently in wooded suburbs. |
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![]() Above and below, a kite killing and eating a just-captured vole; voles and other small mammals are the favored prey of this species. More photos of this feeding incident are here. | |
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![]() A kite hoverning or "kiting," the foraging action from which they derive their common name. | |
![]() A kite bringing a twig to a nest being built in a live oak tree. | |
![]() Above and below, this pair put on a courting display that I was able to photograph on Independence Day, 2012, which is quite late in the season for courtship. More pictures from this display can be seen here. | |
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![]() Juveniles are identified by rufous feathering on the underparts, quite extensive in June on the young bird above, and by white tips on the gray upperpart feathers, shown on the three perched birds in each of the two photos below. | |
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![]() An adult parent flying with one of its fledglings. | |
![]() Above, a juvenile with only a trace of a breast-band left in late October; this bird obliged me by flying across the rising full moon at sunset. |