snail kite

A specialized raptor that hunts over the wetlands specifically looking for freshwater snails

Snail Kite - Female

People in the neighborhood had seen the bird for about three weeks but it was only today it was identified when a birder heard about it. It is a first for the island.

Snail Kite

Snail Kite

Snail Kite

Snail Kite - juvenile

Snail Kite - adult male

Snail Kite photographed on the west coast of Mexico. Guidebooks say that this species exists only on the Gulf side. Same for Birdlife and Cornel Labs Neotropical Birds and every other source I have seen. Snail Kites are common on the west coast north of Puerto Vallarta.

Snail Kite (Rostrhamus sociabilis subsp. sociabilis) Male, species sexually dimorphic. Challuacocha Oxbow in front of Sani Lodge, Sucumbios Province, Ecuador. Always in bad lighting and from a canoe which exacerbated the situation (thats my excuse and I am sticking with it, lol). The kites...

I believe this is a 1st year bird. The marsh has enough snails to feed the Kite's and the Limpkin's.

Snail Kite (Rostrhamus sociabilis subsp. sociabilis) Male, species sexually dimorphic. Roadside along the Transpantaneira Road between South Wild and Porto Jofre, Pantanal, Mato Grosso, Brazil. Wetland at ca. 128 m (420 ft) elevation.

Snail Kite (Rostrhamus sociabilis subsp. sociabilis) Juvenile. Roadside along the Transpantaneira Road between South Wild and Porto Jofre, Pantanal, Mato Grosso, Brazil. Wetland at ca. 128 m (420 ft) elevation.

A Snail Kite just outside of the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, in Boynton Beach, Florida. If you look carefully you can see the tracking band on his left leg.

This was a lifer last year when I spotted it over the marsh at Harns, in Leigh Acres, Fl.

juvenile Snail Kite

Adult Snail Kite

As the day progressed, I tried getting some flight shots with the fz200. It's a bot slow to focus and what with hand-holding at full zoom + converter I was surprised that some of the flight shots turned out fairly well. I like this one, although it could be much sharper. What it lacks in...

... still waiting for a dust-free breath of air. And of course, no sooner had the dust settled, than we took off and raised it again. But Diego was driving slowly, watching for birds all along, so we didn't raise quite so much dust.

sorry if I didn't get these loaded up in the right order. This is shot 2 of the story. The dust just got thicker and thicker. This created problems later on as I had to clean my lense. I took the teleconverter off and cleaned the lenses in between as well. But as the air was rather muggy, I...

OK. Here comes a silly storyboard. It starts when Diego stops the car for an adult male snail kite, sitting quite near the road. I sneak out the passenger door and lean up against the car ... and the kite stays put. But no sooner am I set up for a shot than another car comes barreling by, full...

Finally the dust started to settle. And the kite was still there - screaming out something nasty, it seems, towards the rear of that car as it disappeared down the road. I guess the kite agreed with me that fast-going traffic on those roads was a nuisance, maybe even scaring the snails ;) Oh...

Cruising low over the water, head dipped down, it looks as if this snail kite (again, female of juv) is hunting for snails from the air ...? Anybody know if they do that?