White-tailed Kite in Monterey

MONTEREY BIRDS

a web page by Don Roberson

White-tailed Kite is a resident raptor in Monterey County. Although they can be routinely seen from the roadways as they hover over open fields and marsh, they've been difficult to get close enough to photograph. I've tried for years and have one okay shot (above; Moonglow Dairy 23 Nov 2008).

A chance encounter along 17 Mile Drive in Pebble Beach changed my luck. The kite was hovering over the road, so I pulled off and grabbed the camera.

The kite made passes over me, hovering in one spot and then another. Suddenly, it raised its wings up to a "V" (right) and dropped down into the dune grass, coming up with prey (below). What a stroke of luck! [for me; not for the vole].

On range the prey appears to be California Vole Microtus californicus. This is the kite's primary food locally, and kite populations go up and down with the relative abundance of voles which, like lemmings, have a 'boom-and-bust' cycle.

Adult White-tailed Kites can be more-or-less reliably sexed by whether or not there is a contrast between a white forecrown and a grayer nape and auriculars (Pyle 2008), as on the bird perced below (left). Males show such contrast, so the perched adult is a male, and so is the one in flight near the top of this page. Females have crowns the same pale gray as the nape. Although the head is washing out in some photos, the adult photographed hovering and taking prey in Pebble Beach (above sequence) seems to have a grayish crown in shadow, so may be a female.

In juvenal plumage White-tailed Kite has a brownish back and broad white tips to scaps and greater coverts (right & below right). The breast is washed with cinnamon (below left), and the plumage can last into mid-winter (below right).

These photos:
2 Jan 2004 Moss Landing (left; digiscope)
3 Sep 2004 Carmel R. mouth (right; digi)
8 July 2005 Carmel R. mouth (below L)
3 Feb 2007 Carmel R. mouth (below R)

Literature cited:

Pyle, P. 2008. Identification Guide to North American Birds. Part II: Anatidae to Alcidae. Slate Creek Press, Pt. Reyes Station, CA.

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page created 7 Feb 2009