Swallow-tailed Kite Migration Update: 19 December 2013

The eight Swallow-tailed Kites we are tracking by satellite left the U.S. by late August and settled into their Brazilian and Bolivian winter ranges by mid-October. As the temperature drops here in North America, it is increasing in South America where conditions are heavy with heat and precipitation.

Ranges of 8 satellite-tracked Swallow-tailed Kites from 01 October 2013 to 11 December 2013. 

Pearl MS is in the state of Rhondonia Brazil, 70km south of Alta Floresta d’Oeste. From the aerial imagery, it looks like a matrix of forest and cattle pasture.

Slidell spent 6 weeks near Juara, Mato Grosso, then headed south 390km on 30 November where she now is southeast of Nova Mutum.

Gulf Hammock has been traveling over a stretch 100km west of Concepcion, Bolivia. She had a very similar winter range in 2012.

Palmetto Bluff also traveled through Bolivia where she stayed last year, but this year she took her time, traveling through the country over a 20 day period, and finally settling in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil.

Suwannee has stayed west of Tres Lagoas, Mato Grosso do Sul since 12 October covering an area that stretches 70km north to south over mixed pasture, agriculture and forest patches along small rivers.

Incredibly, MIA, Pace, Day and Palmetto Bluff all made their way to the same roost in Mato Grasso do Sul, Brazil. These birds, tagged at different times and places (Miami, Jacksonville, Daytona and Palmetto Bluff, respectively) converged on this area independently of each other over a period of 28 days. This is half our study population. Can you imagine how many thousands of Swallow-tailed Kites there may be in this one area? We also know from our many years of field studies on the Brazilian winter range that the Swallow-tailed Kites from the U.S. are flocking at this time with thousands of breeding and wintering Plumbeus Kites plus a large portion of the wintering Mississippi Kites from the U.S. This is a strong reminder of how important it is to protect these winter foraging and roosting habitats on the winter range and to ensure that there are compatible farming and logging practices.

A comparison of migration routes

Migration routes used by eastern versus western subpopulations

Swallow-tailed Kites that nest in the eastern portion of the species’ U.S. range (South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida) cross the Gulf of Mexico during their spring and fall migrations, but their routes differ depending on the season. Migrating southward at the end of the nesting season, they fly from southwestern Florida to the northeastern Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico either directly or with brief stops on Cuba. When they return in the spring, they depart from the Yucatan Peninsula and make landfall somewhere along the northern Gulf coast, from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle.

During their spring or fall migrations, Swallow-tailed Kites from the western subpopulation (Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana) may fly across the Gulf of Mexico (See Slidell) or travel entirely overland (See Pearl MS), following the Gulf coastline through Louisiana, Texas, and Mexico.

Our 8 satellite-tagged Swallow-tailed Kites, now settled into wintering locations in Southern Brazil and Bolivia, will start moving north in late January and early February. Watch to see whether Pearl MS and Slidell navigate across or around the Gulf and where the other birds come ashore when returning to their established nesting areas in February and March of 2014.

On their southbound migration, the eastern subpopulation of Swallow-tailed Kites fly from southwestern Florida to the northeastern Yucatan Peninsula. The western subpopulation migrates via on overland route through Mexico or by crossing the Gulf. 

Swallow-tailed Kite Migration: 30 October 2013

Migration routes differ between eastern and western subpopulations

We are currently tracking eight Swallow-tailed Kites from nest sites in the Southeast. We have been documenting the southbound migration of six of these birds that were tagged in Florida and South Carolina. The other two birds, tagged in Mississippi and Louisiana, are part of a collaborative study between ARCI and Jennifer Coulson of the Orleans Audubon Society. Dr. Coulson is studying the geographic range, population size, and limiting factors for Swallow-tailed Kites in Mississippi and Louisiana. Together, we are learning about the differences in migration routes used by eastern versus western subpopulations, which you can see portrayed on today’s tracking map. Today, we introduce Slidell from Mississippi and Pearl MS from Louisiana. In our next post we will detail the differences in their migration routes as compared to the 6 birds of the eastern population. We thank Dr. Coulson for joining the 2013 Kite Migration Blog.

Slidell (female) - tagged in 2011 near Slidell in St. Tammany Parrish, Louisiana

Slidell’s journey north this past spring was “epic,” Jennifer says. On 10 March 2012 she left the Yucatan, heading north across the Gulf of Mexico for her breeding grounds in Louisiana. On March 11th, when she was about halfway across the Gulf, she encountered persistent headwinds related to an unusually large high-pressure system. After a night with virtually no progress, Slidell did an about face and used the favorable tailwind to return to Mexico, arriving south of Veracruz on March 12th after a remarkable 42 hours over the water.

Rather than resuming her northbound migration when she reached shore, Slidell spent over 20 days in Mexico, probably recuperating from the struggle she faced over the water. In early April, she began heading north again. However, when she arrived to her breeding area on April 11th, her previous year’s nest was already occupied. Rather than nesting elsewhere, Slidell made long excursions through the Gulf Coastal states during the breeding season, perhaps in search of her past mate or a new one. On July 30th, she began flying south from Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin, crossed the Gulf of Mexico, and arrived in Campeche, Mexico, on August 1st.

She spent almost 20 days along the northwestern border of Guatemala at a refueling site. Since then she moved steadily through Central and South America where she is now in the State of Mato Grosso north of Juara. She is the most northeastern of all of our 8 GPS-tracked kites.

Pearl MS (male) - tagged in 2011 on the Mississippi side of the Pearl River northwest of Picayune

After his 2013 nesting attempt failed, he remained on his home range for most of the remaining breeding season, unlike the wanderer, Slidell. By 8 August 2013 he had moved to a communal night roost on the Bogue Chitto National Wildlife Refuge, and by mid August he also was using known roost sites on the nearby Old River Wildlife Management Area in Pearl River County.

Pearl MS had the latest departure of our tagged migrants beginning his southbound migration from the Pearl River Basin on August 16th. He also has had the most unique migration route following an overland route completely around the Gulf of Mexico and staying well inland, unlike most tagged kites that usually navigate closer to the coast on both their northbound and southbound migrations through Mexico. Once in the state of Tamaulipas he joined the coast southward. Ten days later he was in southern Nicaragua where his track merged with the others. Now Pearl MS is in the state of Rondonia near Nova Brasilandia d’Oeste.

Update on Palmetto, Pace, Gulf Hammock, Suwannee, Day and MIA

All kites have crept southwest since our last post. From the end of September to the middle of October Swallow-tailed Kites arrive to their wintering grounds where they’ll stay through January.

Palmetto and Gulf Hammock have diverged into Bolivia and are 190 miles apart in the State of Santa Cruz.

Day is in the middle of the pack. She is in the State of Mato Grosso near Sapezal.

MIA has taken some time to wander north and south between Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul but it seems he has found foraging areas close to two of our other migrants Pace and Suwannee.

Pace, Suwannee, and MIA are on ranchlands east of Campo Grande in Mato Grosso do Sul.

Swallow-tailed Kite Migration: 26 Sept 2013

09/26/13

A snapshot in a week of 6 migrating Swallow-tailed Kites

All six of our migrating Swallow-tailed Kites from Florida and South Carolina are now in Brazil. They are enjoying the benefits of an insect buffet through the Amazon and the Cerrado, Brazil’s vast, tropical savannah.

Palmetto, from the lowcountry of South Carolina, is slowly moving south through the state of Acre, 150 miles north of the Bolivian border.

Gulf Hammock, maneuvering along Bolivia’s northern border, is spending time now in the flood plain of the Rio Mamore.

Pace made his way southeast in the last week and is roving over agricultural lands near Rolim de Moura, Rondonia, Brazil.

Day had a very similar, almost parallel track to Pace. She continued on through Rolim de Moura, however, and is now 65 miles east of Pace. In the last week she has covered about 570 miles, approximately the distance from Miami, Florida, to Charleston, South Carolina.

Suwannee’s travels this week, of about 540 miles, carried her from the middle of the Brazilian Amazon to an area about 45 miles west of Ariquemes, Rondonia, Brazil.

MIA, ever faithful to his independent ways, is the southeastern outlier. He has been exploring the State of Mato Grosso, Brazil, looping from Lucas do Rio Verde in the north to Rosario Oeste in the south.

Swallow-tailed Kite Migration: 06 Sept 2013

09/06/13

We're back from the field! And happy that all the kites look to be doing well and moving strong since our last full update on Aug 21st. 

Palmetto (Female) - Tagged in Palmetto Bluff, South Carolina.
Palmetto stayed in Mexico for 8 days and finally resumed her southward migration on August 18th. She moved steadily on, foraging and resting along the way, for 11 days and approximately 1,300 miles, until she made it to the Colombian border in Panama’s remote Darien National Park.

Pace (Male) - Tagged south of Jacksonville, Florida.
It took Pace 9 days to travel through Central America, starting in Belize, to the border of Colombia. He kept a steady pace through the country and has crossed the Andes just north of San Juan de Pasto, a town where there is a narrow pass through which the birds are able to cross the rugged Andes range.

Gulf Hammock (Female) - Tagged in Levy County, Florida.
Gulf Hammock was our last Florida-tagged Swallow-tailed Kite to leave the country. Once she moved, she did so quickly and without a stopover on the Yucatan Peninsula like most of the other tagged birds did and many Swallow-tailed Kites are known to do. This may be due to her prolonged pre-migratory staging, where the extra time to fatten up gave her the energy to keep moving south. From the tracking data, we see that she likes to fly near coastlines, which is a great navigation aide. Gulf Hammock is now nearing the Colombian border with Panama.

"Suwannee" – Female. Tagged at the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge.
Suwannee continued steadily through Central America and into Colombia. She safely crossed the Andes and is now over forested lands of the Caqueta region of Colombia, the boundary area between the Andes and the Amazon.

Day (Female) - Tagged in Daytona, Florida.
After a week in Quintana Roo, Mexico, Day trekked another 11 days crossing most of Central America. In the last 8 days she slowly moved through the Choco of Colombia, the most undeveloped state in Colombia and also one of the world’s great biodiversity hotpots. She is now near the town of Cali and about to cross the Andes.

MIA (Male) - Tagged in south Miami, Florida.
MIA gets the award for being the speed champion migrant. He made it through the Andes on August 15th, shaved over the northeasternmost corner of Peru on August 21st, and continues to sail through the Brazilian Amazon. He has traveled roughly 3,500 miles in 5 weeks.

Swallow-tailed Kite Migration: 21 Aug 2013

08/21/2013

 

An overview of all kites.

Palmetto remains on stopover in the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, the largest protected area in the Mexican Caribbean.

After Pace made landfall on Cuba, he stayed for two days then continued his journey south at 10:00 a.m. on Aug 11th. For 5 hours he flew over the water until he reached the Yucatán Peninsula just 10 miles south of Cancún. Pace’s last recorded location shows he is now 50 miles north of the border of Belize.

Gulf Hammock is making her way through the Yucatán Peninsula.

After a week long stopover, Suwannee is on the move again. Heading south, she made her way slowly through Quintana Roo, hugged the eastern coast of Belize, and entered Guatemala via a 4hr over-water shortcut over the Amatique Bay on Aug 13th. She pressed onward through Honduras and is now just across the border into Nicaragua.

Day is also on the move again after spending 6 days in the southern part of Quintana Roo, Mexico. It looks like she and Suwannee may nearly have been travel partners for a few days as they departed Quintana Roo and moved south through Belize—they have very similar tracks and the same general locations on the same days from the 9th through the 14th of August. Their paths diverged in Honduras where Day has remained at the Sierra de Agalta National Park.

MIA is in Colombia and has approached the Andes Mountains. This is another treacherous part of the migration route. He is following their western edge and the last GPS fix shows he is holding over in the Tatamá National Park.

Swallow-tailed Kite Migration: 20 Aug 2013

08/20/2013

 

Gulf Hammock joins the journey south!

Gulf Hammock is our last Florida-tagged Swallow-tailed Kite to leave the US. She was the only kite to fly north (from Florida to Georgia) to stage for migration. She left her comfy corner of the Ocmulgee River in Georgia, where she spent a month and five days, and headed south where she stayed the night in the Steinhatchee Conservation Area in Lafayette County, Florida. The next night she roosted in the Green Swamp where Pace and Palmetto also stayed over. She spent her last sleeping hours in the U.S. in the Everglades just south of Chokoloskee, Florida. Setting up for departure, she followed the coastline and as the day’s light grew dimmer, she jumped off over Florida Bay from Cape Sable on August 13th. She spent most of the night over the Straits of Florida and made it to Cuba at around 4am. She didn’t stop, however, but continued to head out from the western tip of the Island on a 5 hour over-water trek to Cancun. Gulf Hammock has stopped in Quintana Roo, 30 miles NW of Tulum. Suwannee, Day, Palmetto and Pace are also in Quintana Roo.

Swallow-tailed Kite Migration: 19 Aug 2013

08/19/2013

 

Gulf Hammock has yet to leave Georgia. Any guesses as to when she will make her move south?

Pace stayed in Cuba after he made landfall on August 8th. He was still on the Guanahacabibes Peninsula on the morning of August 11th when his transmitter turned off.

There are 3 birds remaining on stopover in Quintana Roo, Mexico: Suwannee, Day and Palmetto.

MIA on the other hand has a plan to get to South America as soon as possible. He is in Panama about 20 miles from the Colombian border!

*We are trying to keep these updates as current as possible with the birds' actual movements. You will notice a lag right now but we will try to catch back up this week for you all!

Swallow-tailed Kite Migration: 15 Aug 2013

08/15/2013

 

Palmetto has launched!

Another Swallow-tailed Kite makes its jump to the Yucatán. Palmetto left the Green Swamp in west central Florida and sailed off over the Gulf of Mexico in the early evening of August 7th. She launched from Pine Island in Lee County, Florida, significantly farther north than 4 of the tagged kites before her. She did not use Cuba as a stepping stone, but rather, flew a path over 500 miles of open water and did not make landfall until 29 hours after her Florida departure. In unfavorable winds, we have witnessed birds that were forced to stay on the wing for up to 3 days. Palmetto came ashore near Rio Lagartos, Mexico and at the time of her last fix for this map, she had flown inland and was nearing the border between the Mexican states of Yucatán and Quintana Roo.

Palmetto spotted in Georgia

08/14/2013

 

Our colleague, Todd Schneider, a wildlife biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, took some photos of an aggregation of about 50 Swallow-tailed Kites and 20 Mississippi Kites in late July in Long County, Georgia. When he reviewed his photos later on he noticed an antenna on one of the birds. He contacted us with the time and coordinates. Based on our tracking data, we were able to determine this was a photo of Palmetto, one of the Swallow-tailed Kites we are tracking by satellite.

This photo shows Palmetto on July 27th with the transmitter's antenna visible.

At the time of our last update, Palmetto was still staging in the Greeen Swamp in west central Florida.Photo credit: Todd Schneider

Swallow-tailed Kite Migration: 13 Aug 2013

08/13/2013

 

Swallow-tailed Kite Migration Update: 08-13-13

Transmitter Technology and a Focus on the Kite, Pace

During each day, solar energy recharges the on-board batteries of the GPS-equipped satellite transmitters we use to track Swallow-tailed Kites (these devices are made by Microwave Telemetry, Inc.). The GPS receiver on the transmitter collects eight fixes at set times every 24 hours, mainly during daylight. For eight hours every other day, the transmitter uploads the GPS fixesto orbiting satellites. The satellites promptly re-transmit this encrypted information to a commercial facility on Earth, which then processes and sells the data to us (at over $3 per day per bird – you can do the math).

Since our last post, all of the kite transmitters except one were off and recharging so they could send their GPS data to the satellites the next time they turned on. However, one transmitter, carried by Pace from Jacksonville, Florida, did turn on and beam its valuable GPS file into space. This is why we knew during out last update on August 11th that he was flying southwest across Florida Bay.

We will use this opportunity to zoom in on Pace’s story (SEE ORANGE TRACK). He left his nesting area near Jacksonville, Florida, on July 27th and joined other kites in a foraging aggregation near Wildwood, Florida. Pace traveled 12 miles each day between this feeding site and his night roost until August 5th, when he headed south on the first leg of his migration. On August 7th at 3:00 p.m., he slipped off shore at Cape Sable, the southern tip of peninsular Florida. At this point, Pace was committed to crossing the Florida Straits through the night, sailing southwest by alternately gliding slowly downward, then circling to regain altitude. Within 24 hours, he made landfall on the Guanahacabibes Peninsula of extreme western Cuba. We’ll see if he spends the night there and leaves in the morning for Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, 125 more miles across open ocean. Fingers crossed for favorable winds!

Swallow-tailed Kite Migration: 11 Aug 2013

08/11/2013

 

There are now three Swallow-tailed Kites that have departed the U.S. (Suwannee, Day and MIA) and three that remain (Palmetto, Gulf Hammock and Pace). It appears that Gulf Hammock, the only kite that flew north to stage for migration, will be the last bird to exit the country.

Palmetto (Female) - Tagged in Palmetto Bluff, South Carolina.
Palmetto has started her southbound migration. After leaving her South Carolina home, she made it to Gainesville, Florida, (She must have wanted to see us at ARCI!) where she stayed the night in a neighborhood to the northwest of town. She arose in the morning and continued south until she reached the Green Swamp where she stayed and roosted for the night. This is the same area Pace also stayed a night.

Pace (Male) - Tagged south of Jacksonville, Florida.
Pace has launched from the Florida mainland! After spending a night in the Green Swamp, then a night in Big Cypress National Preserve, he went offshore at Cape Sable, Florida. His radio has turned off to recharge and the last GPS fix we received from his transmitter showed he was over the water north of the Florida Keys.

Gulf Hammock (Female) - Tagged in Levy County, Florida.
Gulf Hammock is still on the Ocmulgee River south of Abbeville, Georgia. Unlike the other kites we are tracking, Gulf Hammock flew north (from Florida to Georgia) to stage for migration. This is the third year in a row she is using this pre-migration area.

Suwannee (Female) - Tagged at the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge.
Continues to stay at her stopover site in the Parque Nacional de Quintana Roo. She has been there since July 29th. This is classic stopover behavior similar to what Gina Kent found with her thesis work on the studies of the annual cycle of the Swallow-tailed Kite.

Day (Female) - Tagged in Daytona, Florida.
Day made it safely across the open water and reached Mexico! (At the time of our last post, her radio had turned off to recharge while she was still over the Straits of Florida, south of Marathon Key.) Her route out of the U.S. and to Mexico was very similar to Suwannee’s—she departed from Cape Sable, flew over Cuba and came onshore at the Yucatán Peninsula. She continued until she reached the same area near Tulum where Suwannee also remains on stopover.

MIA (Male) - Tagged in south Miami, Florida.
After moving quickly through Belize, Guatemala and Honduras, MIA arrived to Nicaragua and stayed for a short time. He is moving again. He left Nicaragua, and is now 13 miles west of Limón, Costa Rica.

Swallow-tailed Kite Migration: 09 Aug 2013

08/09/2013

We hope you all are enjoying these migration updates! We sure think it's fascinating stuff. Here's the latest whereabouts of the birds.

Palmetto (Female) - Tagged in Palmetto Bluff, South Carolina.
Still roosting along the Altamaha River in Georgia and congregating with other kites. She was photographed by Todd Schneider on July 29th with 50 other Swallow-tailed Kites and Mississippi Kites.

Pace (Male) - Tagged south of Jacksonville, Florida.
Pace has started his southbound trek. He left his pre-migration area and spent the night in the Green Swamp of Florida east of Dade City and Zephyrhills, Florida.

Gulf Hammock (Female) - Tagged in Levy County, Florida.
Unlike the other kites we are tracking, Gulf Hammock flew north to stage for migration. She traveled from Florida to Georgia and is still on the Ocmulgee River south of Abbeville, Georgia. This is the third year in a row she is using this pre-migration area.

Suwannee (Female) - Tagged at the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge.
Still in the Parque Nacional de Quintana Roo, Mèxico, where she has been for almost a week. This is classic stopover behavior similar to what Gina Kent found with her thesis work at Georgia Southern on the studies of the annual cycle of the Swallow-tailed Kite.

Day (Female) - Tagged in Daytona, Florida.
Day has left Florida to begin the first leg of her migration to South America. She spent the last night in the U.S. roosting in the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed in Collier County, Florida. When her radio turned off last, she was over the Straights of Florida south of Marathon Key. (These state-of-the-art GPS satellite transmitters have a solar-powered battery and are designed to turn off periodically to recharge.)

MIA (Male) - Tagged in south Miami, Florida.
After moving quickly through Belize, Guatemala and Honduras, MIA has slowed down and is staying put in Nicaragua.

Swallow-tailed Kite Migration: 08 Aug 2013

08/08/2013

 

We are currently tracking eight Swallow-tailed Kites during their southbound migration to wintering grounds in Brazil and Bolivia. Over the next few weeks we will be documenting six of the kites that were tagged in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

Palmetto (Female) - Tagged in Palmetto Bluff, South Carolina.
Still joined with other Swallow-tailed Kites in foraging flocks near the Altamaha River in Georgia and was actually spotted by a local birder. He even managed to capture a photo of her! Photo coming soon.

Pace (Male) - Tagged south of Jacksonville, Florida.
Continues to spend his days fueling up in the Wildwood, Florida, area. This is the area at the intersection of I-75 and the Florida Turnpike where you can often see Swallow-tailed Kites overhead.

Gulf Hammock (Female) - Tagged in Levy County, Florida.
Departed her Florida nesting area on July 4th and headed north to her pre-migration staging area in Dodge County, Georgia, near the Ocmulgee River. This is the third year in a row she is using this pre-migration area.

Suwannee (Female) - Tagged at the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge.
After 18 hours of travel, she is still staging in Quintana Roo, Mèxico, near the town of Guanajay to rest and replenish her fat reserves.

Day (Female) - Tagged in Daytona, Florida.
Day is on the move. She has headed SW and spent the night in the Hillsboro River area.

MIA (Male) - Tagged in south Miami, Florida.MIA is moving strong and southbound. Unlike Suwannee, who is still staging in Quintana Roo to replenish her fat reserves, MIA has stopped only to sleep at night. He spent one night each in Mexico, Belize and Honduras and has already made it safely to Nicaragua.

Swallow-tailed Kite Migration: 07 Aug 2013

08/07/2013

 

We are currently tracking eight Swallow-tailed Kites during their southbound migration to wintering grounds in Brazil and Bolivia. Over the next few weeks we will document six of the kites which were tagged in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. 

Palmetto (Female) - Tagged in Palmetto Bluff, South Carolina.
Still joined with other Swallow-tailed Kites in foraging flocks near the Altamaha River in Georgia.

Pace (Male) - Tagged south of Jacksonville, Florida.
Continues to spend his days fueling up in the Wildwood, Florida, area. This is the area at the intersection of I-75 and the Florida Turnpike where you can often see Swallow-tailed Kites overhead.

Gulf Hammock (Female) - Tagged in Levy County, Florida.Departed her Florida nesting area on July 4th and headed north to her pre-migration staging area in Dodge County, Georgia, near the Ocmulgee River. This is the third year in a row she is using this pre-migration area.

Suwannee (Female) - Tagged at the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge.
Suwannee was our first kite to leave the U.S. this year. After leaving peninsular Florida she made her way across Cuba and continued southwest to Quintana Roo, Mexico. Eighteen hours after her Florida departure, she finally stopped near the town of Guanajay, Mexico to rest and replenish her fat reserves.

Day (Female) - Tagged in Daytona, Florida.Still near the St. Johns River and making daily feeding trips to the north shore of the Lake Apopka Restoration Area, where a large foraging aggregation of Swallow-tailed Kites forms every year.

MIA (Male) - Tagged in south Miami, Florida.
MIA, the city bird, has taken off suddenly. Unlike Suwannee, he skipped passing over Cuba and came ashore at the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, on the Yucatán Peninsula. With a northerly tailwind, he continued all the way until he reached southern Belize.

Swallow-tailed Kite Migration: 06 Aug 2013

08/06/2013

 

We are currently tracking eight Swallow-tailed Kites as they begin their southbound migration to their wintering grounds in Brazil and Bolivia. Six of the kites are spread throughout South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. We will document these birds' movements over the next few weeks.

Palmetto (Female) - Tagged in Palmetto Bluff, South Carolina.
Has joined other Swallow-tailed Kites in foraging flocks near the Altamaha River in Georgia.

Pace (Male) - Tagged south of Jacksonville, Florida.
Spending his days fueling up in the Wildwood, Florida, area. This is the area at the intersection of I-75 and the Florida Turnpike where you can often see Swallow-tailed Kites overhead.

Gulf Hammock (Female) - Tagged in Levy County, Florida.
Departed her Florida nesting area on July 4th and headed north to her pre-migration staging area in Dodge County, Georgia, near the Ocmulgee River. This is the third year in a row she is using this pre-migration area.

Suwannee (Female) - Tagged at the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge.
Suwannee is our first kite to leave the U.S. this year. She started heading south on July 24th and spent that night on the Peace River near Fort Meade, Florida. She roosted the next night east of Wauchula, Florida, and her last night in the U.S. in the Picayune Strand State Forest in Big Cypress Swamp. On the afternoon of July 27th she left peninsular Florida through Cape Sable and crossed over the Florida Keys at Marathon on her way to Cuba.

Day (Female) - Tagged in Daytona, Florida.
Near the St. Johns River for the last two weeks. She makes daily feeding trips to the Lake Apopka Restoration Area, where a large foraging aggregation of Swallow-tailed Kites forms every year.

MIA (Male) - Tagged in south Miami, Florida.
MIA seems to be quite the city bird. He is finding food over golf courses, city parks and other treed urban areas from Kendall to Coral Gables, Florida.

Signal Lost

08/05/2013

 

Through June 2013, Croom continued to provide for his offspring by foraging out from his nest area east of Brooksville, Florida. On 2 July, he shifted his activity to an area three miles north, suggesting that the juvenile, which had been on the wing for a month, had become less dependent. This is a time when adults and their young gradually part and join other Swallow-tailed Kites in daily feeding aggregations and communal night roosts, all in preparation for their imminent southbound migration.   

On the night of 6 July 2013, 25 months and well over 25,000 miles of flight after being tagged, Croom’s satellite transmitter abruptly stopped providing data. ARCI biologists began searching for signs of his remains, the transmitter, or an encounter with a predator based on the last week of nighttime GPS fixes. They also looked closely at all the Swallow-tailed Kites they could find foraging in the broader area, but they did not see a kite carrying a transmitter. The crew also talked with local landowners where Croom had been roosting at night, but none had noticed any Swallow-tailed Kites in the previous week.  

There are several reasons why we might stop receiving transmissions from a bird we are tracking: a dead storage battery, premature transmitter failure, harness failure, a broken antenna, or mortality. The batteries in these solar-powered transmitters last over five years, and we have never recovered a Swallow-tailed Kite’s transmitter with evidence of harness failure or a damaged antenna. Complete transmitter failure has been extremely rare for these sophisticated devices and we have not confirmed one such case in the last 14 years.  

We can never be certain of what happened when we fail to find physical evidence following the loss of a bird’s signal, but in this case we believe the most likely cause was predation. There is substantial evidence from our studies and those of Dr. Jennifer Coulson in Louisiana that Swallow-tailed Kites — adults, nestlings, and fledged young — are vulnerable to attacks by Great Horned Owls while on their nests (e.g., incubating or brooding females; unattended young about to fledge) and in night roosts. In 2011, we began a companion project to our kite research to learn more about Great Horn Owl ecology and the factors that might reduce or aggravate the kites’ vulnerability to this powerful predator, which seems to be increasing in number in our study areas.

It always comes as bad news when we lose a marked bird. We certainly considered this when we chose to showcase the day-to-day life and movements of a single Swallow-tailed Kite. On the other hand, the goal of our research is to identify the factors that limit bird populations and, especially, how we humans can reduce the ways in which we compound these natural challenges with our own impacts on the earth. Every marked bird of every species we have tracked has provided remarkable insights vital to conservation — new knowledge from every single one. We remember this each time we accept the privilege of attaching a transmitter to a bird.  Sharing their stories with you is one way we can thank them for their contributions.  

ARCI continues to track eight other Swallow-tailed Kites tagged in 2011 and 2012 in South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana. We will begin positing updates on their movements as the migration season unfolds. 

2013 Nesting

07/11/2013 

Croom and his mate have sucessfully fledged one young Swallow-tailed Kite. The juvenile began to edge out of the nest and onto neighboring branches on the 5th of June. By the 7th of June, the young kite was begging and being fed in the nearby trees. No less than 14 other Swallow-tailed Kites had been gathering in the evenings in this rural neighborhood.

Croom spends his days foraging within 3 miles north and east of his nesting area.  He will start traveling farther as his offspring gets stronger and starts to follow him.  Last year he left his nest area around the 18th of July to join other kites in large communal night roosts, from which they forage in small flocks each day to fatten up on insects before starting their southbound migration.

We'll be watching to see if Croom is on a similar schedule this year.

2012-2013 Migration

05/20/2013

On 6 August 2012, exactly one year to the day of the start of his 2011 southbound migration, Croom again departed the U.S. for South America. He took just over two months to reach his previous year's wintering area, where he stayed for three months. After starting north in mid-January 2013, Croom took just over a month to reach the Yucatán Peninsula from which he departed on 25 February 2013 in mid-afternoon. Flying through the night, he reached New Port Richey on Florida's Gulf coast after 23 hours over the water. Without stopping to rest, he continued flying toward his 2011-2012 breeding area, arriving before dark that same day, 26 February 2013. Croom is currently supplying food to two nestlings at his territory on private land, less than 3 km from his 2012 nest site.

2011-2012 Migration

05/11/2013

Croom, a male Swallow-tailed Kite, was tagged as an adult on 30 May 2011 on private property in Hernando County Florida, six miles southwest of the Croom tract of the Withlacoochee State Forest. We do not know if he nested that year. Croom departed Florida on 6 August 2011, flying first from Cape Sable (extreme southern Florida at the seaward tip of the Everglades) to western Cuba, then to the Yucatán Peninsula.

He spent over two months making his way to the northern edge of the U.S. population's winter range, near the border of Bolivia and Brazil, where he stayed for three months before beginning his northward migration in mid-January 2012. His return trip was quicker, under two months. From the northern tip of the Yucatán, he crossed the Gulf of Mexico in the late hours of 3 March 2012, arriving in the U.S. by mid-afternoon 15 hours later.  From there, Croom took two days to return to his 2011 territory where he nested in 2012.

Check back next week for an update on Croom's 2012/2013 migration and his current location. The headwinds were strong this past February as Croom flew across the Gulf to get to his Florida territory, but he did make it back to Florida safely.

As we catch up with Croom's current status, we look forward to sharing more natural history stories from his life. We are also working on getting a photo of him soon!

Croom: The life of one Swallow-tailed Kite

05/02/2013

For over a decade, ARCI has been at the forefront of tracking birds through cuttine-edge technologies. Documenting birds' movements allows scientists to better understand their behavior and make well-informed conservation decisions. But beyond the data points lies a story that fascinates and inspires. We invite you to share this story as we follow the life of one Swallow-tailed Kite tagged near the Croom tract of the Withlacoochee State Forest in central Florida—a bird that we have followed for over 20,000 miles during the last two years.

Who is Croom? Stay tuned to find out!