This southbound half of their 10,000-mile migration cycle contributes fascinating behavioral, geographic, and habitat data to ARCI’s long-term tracking study of Swallow-tailed Kites. #3 - It takes about 30 days for a young Mississippi kite to hatch from the egg. Anhinga Barred Owl Black Vulture Hooded Warbler Kentucky Warbler Louisiana Waterthrush Mississippi Kite Northern Parula Red-shouldered Hawk Scarlet Tanager Summer Tanager Swainson's Warbler.

Range: Pre-breeding migration. However, its long term success depends equally on the continued availability of suitable habitat on its wintering grounds in South America and along its migration path through middle America. They arrive in late April and depart by early September.

Range map: Pre-breeding migration Data ... Mississippi Kite Ictinia mississippiensis. Feeds on large flying insects. Mississippi Kite: Small kite, dark gray upperparts, pale gray underparts and head. Upperwings are dark gray with pale gray patches. They were thought to winter only as far south as Guatemala (Parker 1977) As recently as the 1940s, this graceful hawk was considered rare and endangered in North America, restricted to a few sites in California and Texas. Find More Birds.
Numbers appear to be increasing. Tail is long and black.

In recent decades, it has increased greatly in numbers and spread into many new areas.

The Mississippi Kite population has been estimated at 190,000 individuals (BirdLife International 2012), but over 300,000 kites were counted on migration in southern Mexico in 2002 (Ruelas 2005). Status in Tennessee: The Mississippi Kite is a fairly common summer resident in West Tennessee and a rare migrant in the Middle and Eastern parts of the state.

Mississippi Kite arrive at the nesting site as mated pairs.

Despite the name, it is most common on the southern Great Plains.

A total of 118,153 kites, many of which migrated in large flocks, were counted dur-ing this period. People that see them often mistake them for other birds because the Kite’s gray coloring is so different from other more well known raptors. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

... Mississippi Kite Ictinia mississippiensis. Interactive eBird Map: Click here to access an interactive eBird map of Mississippi Kite sightings Similar Species: White-tailed Kite, Peregrine Falcon It is not uncommon to see several circling in the same area.