Avian Research and Conservation Institute (ARCI) is continuing our Swallow-tailed Kite (and Short-tailed Hawk) nest monitoring program “Eyes on Kites”.
ARCI has monitored nesting Swallow-tailed Kites since 1988. Archiving specific nest locations and their fates is truly valuable for this charismatic species, which has experienced large variations in population size and distribution over the century. We can determine the protective status and potential threats to each nest site or neighborhood of nests and advise land owners, whether private, public, or commercial, on how best to protect them. We also can identify areas where productivity is particularly high or low and, over time, relate this to factors such as site fidelity, longevity, abandonment, predation and disturbance risks, and habitat integrity through long-term monitoring.
Swallow-tailed Kites are arriving back to Florida each day and now is the time to find nesting activity. We hope you will consider monitoring Swallow-tailed Kite nests with us. Your observations are helpful for our monitoring program and nest-site database. You are our eyes in the field!
Information on finding and safely monitoring kite nests can be found here:
Signing up for the 2024 nest season is easy and free and you can use your log in from previous years or join here:
Once you sign up you have access to all of the Submission Forms, note that we have a separate research project on Sanibel Island with its own nest check form:
Subsequent nest checks are logged here:
We are ready for an exciting and hopefully productive Kite nesting season!
With gratitude,
Gina Kent, Ken Meyer, and the ARCI team
Last year we had a nest right outside our house and we weren’t able to watch two babies ledge and move from one pine tree over to another one about 50 yards apart. The last hurricane of 2024 took down their original nest tree, but they are definitely here again this year because we see them all the time, and they dive bomb us constantly so we know the new nest is near. We are in North Lakeland.
Great news! I hope they are using your area again!
We have been seeing only one on occasion here at Saddle Creek Park in Lakeland, Fl, it arises around 9am makes a couple of passes over the trees and heads north. This morning it had a friend with it. Hope we have plenty of babies this year. I really wish your group was reporting more on the tagged birds…hope they are okay,it was a rough year for migration with all the north winds.
Thanks Mr. Range, we are indeed due for an update on the tagged birds.
Coming soon!
It definitely was a rough year for migration.
We hope your kites will be successful again this season.