Swallow-tail kites found nesting in the White River National Wildlife Refuge
\n
\nthenewsstar.com
\nArkansas Game and Fish Commission
\nsports@thenewsstar.com<\/p>\n
A multi-year research project offers hope that an extremely rare bird may find a new home territory in Arkansas.<\/p>\n
And this is not the heralded ivory-billed woodpecker. It\u2019s the swallow-tail kite. That\u2019s a raptor, a bird of prey in the category of hawks and falcons.<\/p>\n
A pair of swallow-tail kites have been nesting in the White River National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Arkansas for the past few years, and this season were joined by a third one, who did not receive an enthusiastic welcome from the first two, according to researcher Sabine Schaefer.
\n These kites are somewhat similar in appearance to the Mississippi kite, a bird seen fairly frequently soaring in various areas of Arkansas but usually in the vicinity of major waterways. The swallow-tail has similar gray and white coloring but is larger and has the deeply-notched tail that provides its name.
\nSchaefer, a native of Germany, is working on her doctorate at Arkansas State University with the swallow-tail kite research. It\u2019s a project involving the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, with Dr. Jim Bednarz of ASU directing it.<\/p>\n
For nearly 60 years, no swallow-tail kites were seen in Arkansas. Reports surfaced in 1998, then a search for a nest was launched in 2001 in the lower White River country, with biologist Karen Rowe of AGFC directing it. Amy St. Pierre, an ASU, found a nest of the bird in 2002 in the refuge, the first known in Arkansas in a hundred years. Troy Bater took over the research in 2004 and 2005 and found two baby swallow-tail kites that were dead , apparent victims of predator birds.<\/p>\n
Schaefer came to Arkansas and began her work on the kites in January. The territory where the birds nest is remote, hard to traverse, but she had something of a background. She did her master\u2019s degree work on a falcon in Mongolia.<\/p>\n
Schaefer said, \u201cThere is so very little material available on the swallow-tail kites. We know that they nest in super-emergent trees.\u201d That means large trees that stand above others in a forest. The nearest populations of swallow-tail kites are in Louisiana, roughly 200 miles south of the White River refuge.<\/p>\n
Other concentrations of swallow-tail kites are in Florida, with the birds occasionally appearing in Georgia and South Carolina. Once their range was much grated, all the way to Minnesota, Bednarz said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s difficult enough to find the kites\u2019 nest, and they don\u2019t necessarily use the same one more than one year, Schaefer said. But the nests are extremely high in very tall trees. Getting to the nests to check on eggs or chicks means climbing the trees with rappelling gear.<\/p>\n
Again, in 2006, a predator struck the swallow-tail kite nest. Eggs were apparently eaten by a snake. Schaefer and her helper, J.P. Fairhead, installed snake guards of metal flashing cover with grease. But, Bednarz said, a snake\u2019s trail was found going down the tree through the grease. There was no upward trail, meaning the snake was probably already in the tree when the guard was put in place, he said.<\/p>\n
Schaefer\u2019s work includes research on Mississippi kites in the area. She and her helper have been able to catch a few with fine-meshed nets and have installed transmitters to help record movements of these relatives of the swallow-tails.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Swallow-tail kites found nesting in the White River National Wildlife Refuge thenewsstar.com Arkansas Game and Fish Commission sports@thenewsstar.com A multi-year research project offers hope that an extremely rare bird may find a new home territory in Arkansas. And this is not the heralded ivory-billed woodpecker. It\u2019s the swallow-tail kite. That\u2019s a raptor, a bird of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[413],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n