The Park and its vicinity stood out as a veritable oasis in an almost
treeless region of open rolling topography, with a short-grass type of
vegetation dominating. The kites displayed versatility in their choice
of places to forage. Often they soared over the cottonwood groves, the
lake, or the ponds, but at other times they flew far out over the
plains, and seemed to prefer such open situations. A small herd of
buffalo was maintained at the Park, and their closely grazed pastures
of several hundred acres were favorite foraging grounds for the kites.
Often the kites and buffalo were seen in close association, and at
times the kites must have benefited from the movements of the buffalo,
serving to flush certain insects such as grasshoppers. The latter were
probably the chief food source of the kites in the heavily grazed
pastures. Bent (1936:67) stated: "A flock of from 3 to 20 will sail
about a person, a horseman or a team, traveling through grassy flats
or bushy places, and seize the cicadas as they are scared up." Dr.
Hibbard told me that on one occasion when he had caught a number of
cicadas, he fed them to a pair of kites by tossing them into the air
one by one, and each was seized by a kite which was flying nearby
waiting expectantly.
Mississippi kites are noted for their buoyant and seemingly almost
effortless flight, and their prey is caught while they are on the
wing. In extended flights the kites soar, drift and circle with
frequent easy flapping, at variable heights. Sometimes they are
several hundred feet above the ground. Doubtless the height is
influenced by the types of insects that are flying, and where they can
be found most readily. Even at close range the catching of prey by a
kite is likely to be overlooked by an observer. After being snatched
from the air, the prey is usually eaten while the kite is still in
flight, and the movements of the head in pecking at the objects held
in the talons are much more noticeable than the slight veering from
the course of flight that signals the actual capture. Kites were often
watched while they were hunting in the open areas around the Park. On
June 1, 1961, my son and I observed 16 perched together in a small
tree. From time to time each kite would leave the tree in a short
flight low over the surface of a nearby pool, where it would snatch up
prey, probably a dragonfly in many instances, and would return to a
perch to feed. Most of the time one or several kites were in flight
while the majority were perched. Similar observations were made on
smaller groups perched on fence posts along the edges of large
pastures. Gregarious tendencies were evident from the fact that two or
more of the kites perched fairly near together on separate but
sometimes adjacent fence posts. Each kite in turn would glide from its
post, skim low over the ground surface for a few seconds, seize its
prey with a sudden slight swerving, and return to the fence (usually
to a different post from the one it had left) to feed upon the insect
captured. Grasshoppers of many species were abundant in the area. It
seemed that grasshoppers were flushed from the ground by the bird
flying near them and were picked off before they were well underway.
In any case the prey was taken from the air rather than from the
ground in all observed instances. Ganier (1902:86) mentioned seeing
one of these kites alight on the ground in a cotton field, where it
stayed for more than a minute, but perching on the ground is unusual.
Most often kites that were catching their prey by skimming close to
the ground did not return to a perch but ate while they were flying.
Associations of groups on posts at edges of fields, in trees or in
flight were ephemeral as each bird seemed driven by a restless urge to
be in motion. The kites generally gave the impression of catching
their prey effortlessly and casually in the course of their flights.
However, on July 20, 1961, one flying over a pond was seen to swoop
three times in rapid succession at a dragonfly without catching it.
The kite then flew higher, circled, and swooped three times more at
the dragonfly, catching it on the last attempt. Most of the insects
preyed upon are slower and less elusive than dragonflies, which are
largely immune to the attacks of flying predators because of their
great prowess in flight.
Only on rare occasions could the kind of prey captured be observed in
the field. Food habits were studied by collecting pellets of the kites
at the Park, and analyzing them. The pellets were usually disgorged
early in the morning while the kites were still on their night roosts
in large cottonwoods. Often several kites roosted in the same tree.
The pellets were of characteristic appearance, elliptical,
approximately 15 millimeters in diameter, 30 millimeters long, pinkish
or purplish, composed of insects' exoskeletons compacted, and
comminuted to about the consistency they would have after passing
through a meat grinder.
A total of 205 pellets was collected--37 on August 20, 1960; 56 on
July 18, 1961; 60 on August 4 and 5, 1961, and 52 on August 21 to 23,
1961. A total of 453 separate items was tentatively identified.
Obviously the material was far from ideal for the identification of
prey, which had to be reconstructed from minute fragments. The kites
are dainty feeders and discard the larger and less digestible parts
such as wings, legs, and heads. Often it was uncertain how many
individuals or how many kinds of insects were represented in a pellet.
Probably most pellets contained many individuals of the same species,
but these were not separable. Hence, only 2.2 items per pellet were
found, whereas Sutton found an average of 22.2 items in each of the 16
stomachs that he examined.
Best information concerning kinds of prey utilized was obtained soon
after the fledglings had left the nest; on various occasions these
still clumsy young dropped nearly intact insects that were delivered
to them by the adults. These insects, recovered from beneath the
perches, were the basis for all specific and generic determinations;
other material was determinable only to order or to family.
One of the most significant outcomes of the examination of pellets was
the finding that vertebrates were scarcely, if at all, represented in
the food. Three pellets contained shreds that seemed to be mammal
hairs, but in the absence of other remains, the diagnosis is somewhat
doubtful. Many species of small mammals, birds, reptiles and
amphibians were common in the Park or its vicinity, but insects made
up nearly all the recorded prey. Audubon (1840:73) mentioned lizards
and small snakes in the food and gave a dramatic but perhaps
imaginative account of a kite swooping and snatching a lizard (anole)
from the topmost branch of a tree. Goss (1891:251) stated: "I have
seen them swoop down, and, with their claws, snatch lizards from the
ground, rocks and old logs, sometimes stopping to eat them, but, as a
rule, feeding on the wing." Bendire (1892:179) stated that the food
was mostly insects "probably varied with a diet of small rodents,
lizards and snakes." Wayne (1910:71) stated that the food consisted
almost entirely of insects and lizards. Bent (1936:67-68), after
stating that small snakes, lizards and frogs were sometimes taken,
cited a statement in the notes of G. W. Stevens that the latter had
found the remains of toads, mice and young rabbits in nests with
young. However, Sutton (_op. cit._:51) in a detailed analysis of the
stomach contents of 16 kites in Oklahoma, found only insects and
remains of one small fish among a total of 358 prey items. Predation
on vertebrates must be rare, and perhaps requires further verification
in view of the rather vague character of the records so far published.
The following list includes both the prey found beneath perches of
fledglings and that identified from pellets, the latter mostly from
adult kites.
coleopteran
unspecified 187
carabid 39
cicindelid
unspecified 18
_Cicindela_ sp. 2
hydrophilid
unspecified 18
_Hydrous_ sp. 1
scarabaeid
unspecified 1
_Canthon_ sp. 3
silphid
_Necrophorus_ sp. 1
orthopteran
unspecified 120
locustid
unspecified 34
_Arphia crassa_ 1
_Melanoplus_ cf. _differentialis_, 2
_Schistocerca_ cf. _lineata_ 1
_Xanthippus corallipes_ 2
tettigoniid
unspecified 3
_Daihinia_ sp. 1
homopteran
cicadid
unspecified 15
_Tibicen_ cf. _pruinosa_ 1
lepidopteran (unspecified moth), 3
At Meade State Park I gained the impression that much of the foraging
is carried on near the nest. The short time lapse between successive
feedings was one indication, and from time to time while keeping nests
under observation, I saw kites that were individually recognizable as
the owners coursing back and forth in the vicinity. However, only a
few individuals were recognizable. For several minutes before and
after delivering food, such an adult was often seen soaring within 200
to 300 yards of the nest, or sometimes much closer. A somewhat
different impression was received on August 23, 1961, at Natural
Bridge, south of Sun City, Barber County, Kansas, where I observed two
pairs of kites feeding fledglings. One fledgling was seen to be fed
ten times in a 11/2 hour period. The transfer of food from the adult
usually required less than a minute. Then the adult would leave the
tree, in a ravine, and drift away. Circling and soaring, it seemed to
be wandering aimlessly, but within two or three minutes it was usually
out of sight over the horizon. In what appeared to be slow, lazy,
flight it usually drifted off to the west, to more upland areas of
short grass and sage brush. Once, watching from a high knoll I
succeeded in keeping it in view for almost five minutes, and during
most of this time it appeared to be between one and two miles away,
but it finally moved off even farther. Dr. Hibbard mentioned seeing
kites in the vicinity of the Jinglebob Ranch eight to ten miles from
the Park, and he believed that these individuals had come from the
Park since there was no suitable habitat in the intervening areas.
Actually, the distance could have been covered in a few minutes'
flying time, but it is unlikely that these individuals were feeding
young at the Park, else they would not have wandered so far. On
several occasions groups of from three to 20 individuals were seen in
open terrain as much as four or five miles from the Park.