Swallow-tailed Kite returns to breeding season roosts

July 19, 2026

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appeared July 19, moving through the tall pines in the height of breeding season. Pairs are deep in the work of tending nestlings now, soon to gather in communal roosts as the summer progresses.

This species once ranged across the eastern U.S., but hunting and habitat clearing compressed its world to the Florida peninsula and scattered strongholds across the Gulf Coast. Every summer sighting here—a bird passing through or settling to breed—marks this flatwoods as one of their last refuges on the continent. Their return each year is a measure of what remains.

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More about A Swallow-tailed Kite

A swamp raptor of the Gulf Coast turns up in Ann Arbor

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