GPS-tracked Swallow-tailed Kites from Palm Beach County, Florida check in on Winter Break

We are delighted continue our partnerships with the Palm Beach Zoo & Conservation Society and Palm Beach County’s Department of Environmental Resources Management (ERM) on Swallow-tailed Kite remote tracking research. This year we put GSM-GPS units (CTT) on three adult Swallow-tailed Kites from breeding locations within the County’s ERM properties discovered by ERM staff who also joined us on the capture and tagging process. Zoo staff also assisted in tagging the kites, with the help of the Zoo’s animal ambassador “Hino”, a Great Horned Owl trained for educational programs.

You may recall that Juno, a female Swallow-tailed Kite left for winter vacation ahead of the other two tracked Kites.  Was she able to keep her lead…YES. She had a very short stopover in Quintana Roo, Mexico where many Kites rest. Then, she did not seem to slow down until 18 September when she arrived in western Mato Grosso, Brazil and has remained since.

The other female Kite from Palm Beach County, Florida is Lox 22. Once on the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, she spent 12 days resting and feeding before advancing south.  She had another ten-day stopover in southern Panama, which was a first for ARCI in over 25 years of tracking Kites. Her track was quite like that of Juno until crossing the Andes Mountains in Colombia, where she paralleled Juno’s track 27 days later and about 60 miles west. She arrived in the northwest part of Rondônia, Brazil on 13 October 2022.

Cypress, a male Swallow-tailed Kite, left Florida the latest and made good time after a seven-day stopover in Quintana Roo, Mexico.  Once in Colombia, he chose a northern Andes Mountain crossing and had already passed Lox 22 five days prior. By 6 October 2022, Cypress was settling in to south-central Rondônia, Brazil.

Palm Beach Zoo & Conservation Society, in conjunction with long-time Zoo sponsor Florida Power & Light Company, have generously provided funding for the solar-powered GSM-GPS transmitters needed to continue this vital conservation effort.