“Missing” Swallow-tailed Kites make it to their breeding grounds

Can we tell you how excited we are? Our long-lost GSM-GPS tracked Swallow-tailed Kites have come back to Florida! With the changes in cell-phone towers and network technologies, the internationally traveling kites we track don’t always have the gear necessary to upload data to the various local receiving networks. This has been the case particularly for the two Swallow-tailed Kites tagged on Sanibel Island, Florida, during the 2021 breeding season.

Meet Bailey’s Homestead (male) and Sanibel Botanical (female), Swallow-tailed Kites equipped with CTT GSM-GPS units. (Also see our 2021 introduction blog.).

During the return to the breeding grounds (Florida in this case) from wintering locations in South America, these birds were able to reconnect via suitable cell towers to “check in” and start uploading their extensive tracks. 

Where have they been? Well…

Sanibel Botanical wintered at the SE border of the State of Mato Grosso, Brazil, and within northeastern Mato Grosso do Sul along the Cuiabá River. On 24 January, she started her northbound trek back to Florida. Holding a northwesterly heading, she stayed over land all the way to the Honduras coast. On 8 March 2022, she flew out over the Caribbean, reaching the shore of Belize in the middle of the night. With a good tailwind, she breezed up the Yucatan Peninsula and out over the open Gulf of Mexico. She made it safely back to shore in the early hours of 11 March, at Cayo Costa State Park, then swiftly covered the last 16 miles to her summer home on Sanibel.

Bailey’s Homestead had a very similar migration. He wintered 220 miles farther south in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, then began northward on 3 February 2022 and took up the same track as Sanibel Botanical 14 days later. He reached the coast of Honduras on 15 March, then crossed the Bay to northern Belize. It took him 2 days to fly up the Yucatan Peninsula before heading offshore on 17 March for 2 days over the Gulf of Mexico before reaching the Florida Panhandle just east of Panama City Beach.  Knowing exactly how to get “home”, he turned east and then south for two more days before reaching Sanibel Island, Florida on 20 March.

ARCI is collaborating with the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation (SCCF) and the City of Sanibel on an Island-wide effort to find and monitor Swallow-tailed Kite nests that include public properties like the J.N “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge and SCCF lands. All professionals and volunteers who monitor the kites on Sanibel follow ethical viewing guidelines to ensure the safety and protection of the birds while minimizing disturbance and respecting the rights and privacy of property owners.

In order to safely and successfully capture Swallow-tailed Kites and fit them with transmitters, we use a trained, captive owl to lure kites into a large net. We were delighted to work with a local Sanibel conservation ambassador, “Mina” the Great Horned Owl (used for public education), and her caretaker, Breanna Frankel of C.R.O.W. (Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife, Inc.).

This work would have been impossible without this vital collaboration, the generosity of a private donor, and the amazing tracking equipment produced by CTT-Cellular Tracking Technologies.