• Bruce Glick: Gone Birding

A white-tailed kite shows up in Northern Indiana

• Bruce Glick: Gone Birding
• May 27, 2018
• 3240

The annual Indiana Dunes Birding Festival was just getting underway in Northwestern Indiana on Friday, May 18 when a birder made a surprising discovery at the nearby Reynold’s Creek Wildlife Area. A white-tailed kite was seen very close to the road and later was observed catching and eating a vole.

The word quickly reached the hundreds of people at the festival, and many of them were able to see the kite, which stayed in the same general area all day. Word reached us here in Goshen in the afternoon. I picked up Perry Miller, and we headed over to Porter County.

When we reached the address, I realized it was the exact same location where I saw a snowy owl this past winter. There were three other cars in the wildlife area parking lot, and birders were obviously watching something. It turned out that the kite was some distance away, being chased by several crows as it flew back and forth near a distant treeline. Before long the kite landed somewhere in the field but out of our sight.

At the time there was a light drizzle and light was fading. Someone saw that there was a dirt road leading to a parking lot closer to where we last saw the kite, so we drove down the road until it disappeared under water from recent rains. By scanning the corn-stubble field, we were able to find the kite and get excellent looks through our scopes.

The white-tailed kite used to be called black-shouldered kite when the two were considered the same species. Black-shouldered kites are found in much of Africa, India and Asia. Australia also has a kite that is sometimes considered a separate species but also may be lumped with the black-shouldered. Here in the western hemisphere, our white-shouldered kite occurs in parts of the United States and then on down through parts of Mexico, Central America and South America.

Hunting pressure on the kites in California and Texas brought the species close to extinction by around 1930, but protection led to the birds rebounding. There are now probably more white-tailed kites than in the past, although they are still only found in a few locations. Some of the California birds eventually spread to Oregon, and South Texas remains a stronghold. South Florida has a small population. In the winter white-tailed kites gather in groups where there is a plentiful food supply (mainly voles).

There are records of white-tailed kites in many states far from nesting areas. While Ohio has no records that I am aware of, this is the third appearance in Indiana. The first two were further south, the first in 1981 and the second in 1994. Illinois and Kentucky also have at least one record, so Ohio is about due.

The current visitor here in Indiana has been seen regularly over the last five days, usually quite close to the road where the bird does not seem to pay attention to delighted birders. It reminds me of the swallow-tailed kite that stayed mainly in the same field near Millersburg for 14 days in 1997.

There continues to be excellent birding as the spring migration season draws to a close. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have.

Good birding!

Reach Bruce Glick birderbruce@yahoo.com or 330-317-7798.