kites in upstate south carolina (2 Viewers)

[mbab]

Is it possible I saw a Mississippi Kite soaring above my house in Upstate S. Carolina? They had no markings underneath. Very "soft" looking. The tail was wedge shaped, not long and narrow or forked. I've been birding a long time and have never seen a bird like this.

 

[Bewick]

Remember it’s colours?

 

[mbab]

grey/muted Buffy. I watched for about 15 minutes and saw them in good light. they colors were very soft with no markings

 

[KC Foggin]

I'm in Myrtle Beach so I'm gonna hopefully keep my eyes out.

 

[Bewick]

Should be possible- ebird has quite a few reports of them in South Carolina. A local will give you more accurate information though.

 

[mbab]

The silhouette was like the pictures on iNaturalist but it would seem a rare bird for this area.

 

[nartreb]

Did you notice anything about the head shape or wing shape? Without those, a plain pale bird might be anything from a gull to a northern harrier (with sun overhead, you might not notice dark wingtips) to a pale red-tailed hawk (red not always evident from underneath, belly band is sometimes vanishingly small). If you're confident it was kite-shaped, then yeah, it's probably a Mississippi kite.

 

[jmepler]

The silhouette was like the pictures on iNaturalist but it would seem a rare bird for this area.

Not unusual for North Carolina. More common closer to the coast, but certainly not rare further inland.

 

[mbab]

Thank you to all replying. Definitely kite shaped and upon further investigation I'm pretty confident that's what I saw. The pictures on iNaturalist helped a lot.