Mississippi Kite

The biggest surprise of my trip was the sighting of a Mississippi kite in Patagonia, Arizona. My guide, Jake, lives in Patagonia and indicated that one was nesting in a residential area in town. We drove by and saw it in a large tree and I got a few photos. Now that I look at its distribution I am surprised to see how patchy it is. It is a bird of the southeastern U.S., at least in the U.S. for the most part, where it breeds, but its range does extend down through eastern Texas in a band along the Caribbean Coast through Central America and then quite deep into portions of South America.

Mississippi kite in the yard of a home in Patagonia, Arizona.

I first heard of this bird after seeing a plumbeous kite in Tikal NP in Guatemala earlier this year. They look quite similar. 

Illustration from Birds of the World. 

Illustration flying from Birds of the World.

Range from Birds of the World.