June 30, 2009, 6:58 pm
You can learn to identify this one. Trust me.
The swallow-tailed kite has a long, forked tail that makes it one of the easiest birds to recognize when it swoops overhead. And swoop it does — these kites are graceful fliers.
Head out to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary or Big Cypress National Preserve and you’ll probably see them flying overhead hunting and eating on the wing, or you might also spot one flying over a high-traffic city street. I saw one recently swooping over Goodlette-Frank Road in downtown Naples.
“They’re just beautiful to watch in the air. I’m a little nuts about them. I’ll pull over on a busy road to see them,” says Iver Brook, an avid birder who volunteers at J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island. “About three weeks ago in Fort Myers, one came zooming over along Summerlin Road.”
