Saturday, December 28, 2019
Winter Range Update on 16 GPS-tracked Swallow-tailed Kites
We have followed the Swallow-tailed Kites to familiar winter destinations within Brazil. From north to south, Apopka and Hobolochitto are in Rondônia, Brazil, about 700 km north of four kites in Mato Grosso, Brazil: Suwannee, PBC-ERM Male, Wilson, and Sarasota. This is the riverine rich area north of the Pantanal wetland.
850 km south, seven of our kites have gathered on the east side of Mato Grosso do Sul: Lacombe, Sanibel, Prichard, JAX. Sawgrass. Babcock, and Ponchitolawa.
We are sorry to report that we have lost signal from Bayou Vincent in Bolivia, a Swallow-tailed Kite tagged by Jennifer Coulson in Louisiana. We are in contact with some local biologists to see about accessing her last location to get some answers.
Our “missing” Swallow-tailed Kites OK and PBC-ERM Female have been out of cell service in Colombia since August. We still hope they are just fine and will connect with a cell network soon and upload their travel information.