SOCIAL BIRDS: Thousands of swallow-tailed kites roost atop cypress trees at a ranch in southern Florida. © Mac Stone
Maria Whitehead yanks her feet out of the water as something crashes into Bull Creek next to the boat. Seconds later, a 10-foot-long alligator surfaces a few yards away. As the prehistoric reptile glides off, leaving a sinuous wake in the tannin-brown river, Whitehead casually retrieves her binoculars and goes back to watching a nest of swallow-tailed kites near the top of a soaring pine.
A project director for The Nature Conservancy in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Whitehead seems unfazed by nearly losing a toe on the job. So does Craig Sasser, manager of the Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge. Wading into primeval cypress swamps, scaling 100-foot pine trees, paddling up tidal rivers through clouds of insects in triple digit heat: These are all part of researching swallow-tailed kites, a spectacular but poorly understood raptor.
Swallow-tailed kites are built like gliders, with huge wings and small, streamlined bodies. They rarely flap their wings; instead, they soar effortlessly, changing course with minute adjustments of their distinctive forked tails. They feed on the wing, snatching dragonflies and other insects out of the sky. Watching a swallow-tailed kite in flight is to be entranced. Even the Peterson Field Guide seems almost effusive about the bird, calling it “a sleek, elegant, black-and-white hawk that flies with incomparable grace.”
But admiration alone is not driving the urge to learn more about these rare birds. Subject to a variety of pressures, the kites have already undergone a historic population crash ...
http://www.nature.org/magazine/archives/aprilmay-2016-issue-a-safe-place-to-land.xml
Posts
