{"id":22002,"date":"2022-08-09T19:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-09T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flgcc.com\/?p=22002"},"modified":"2026-05-28T15:18:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T19:18:48","slug":"snail-kites-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/09\/snail-kites-2\/florida\/","title":{"rendered":"Snail Kites"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This past week my friend and fellow photographer Art Nadelman and I ventured down to the Fort Myers area in search of snail kites. I\u2019ve written about snail kites on a couple of occasions in the past. Most recently we had a great day photographing kites near Gainesville. But this week was the best yet for capturing images of these beautiful birds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/220805-4-snail-kite-male-gliding-by-to-right.jpg\" alt=\"Snail Kite Male Gliding By To Right\" class=\"wp-image-99349\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Male Snail Kite Gliding by to the Right<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/220803-4-snail-kite-male-plunged-in-water-grabbing-snail.jpg\" alt=\"Snail Kite Male Plunged In Water Grabbing Snail\" class=\"wp-image-99339\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Snail Kite Male Plunged in the Water Grabbing a Snail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Snail kites are on the Federal Endangered Species list. They are only found in certain areas of Florida in the US. Their diet consists primarily of large apple snails. It\u2019s fascinating to watch them hunt for and grab the snails from the water. They go in feet first and pluck the snails out of the shallows then fly off to a nearby perch to pick the meat out of the shell. Apple snails are aptly named because they can grow to the size of a small apple. For reference, here is a photo of one in my hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" src=\"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/IMG_1015-1920x1440.jpg\" alt=\"Img 1015\" class=\"wp-image-22040\" srcset=\"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/IMG_1015-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/IMG_1015-900x675.jpg 900w, https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/IMG_1015-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/IMG_1015-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/IMG_1015-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/IMG_1015-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/IMG_1015-600x450.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Apple snail<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We see snail kites occasionally throughout the year but rarely find more than a couple at a time. This week we found a larger group that included 3 males which is very unusual. The males are a beautiful blue-gray color with bright orange feet and bills and red eyes. Two of the males were banded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/220805-5-snail-kite-male-perched-on-end-dead-branch.jpg\" alt=\"Snail Kite Male Perched On End Dead Branch\" class=\"wp-image-99357\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Male Snail Kite Perched on End of Dead Branch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/220805-4-snail-kite-female-perched-in-tree.jpg\" alt=\"Snail Kite Female Perched In Tree\" class=\"wp-image-99344\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Snail Kite Female Perched in a Tree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019ve listed some links for more information on snail kites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.snailkite.org\/important-facts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.snailkite.org\/important-facts<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/guide\/Snail_Kite\/lifehistory\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/guide\/Snail_Kite\/lifehistory<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/fl.audubon.org\/birds\/snail-kite\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/fl.audubon.org\/birds\/snail-kite<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nps.gov\/ever\/learn\/nature\/snailkite.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.nps.gov\/ever\/learn\/nature\/snailkite.htm<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-paragraph\">More photos have been uploaded to the <a href=\"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/gary-walker-photography\/galleries\/nature\/birds\/kites\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Kites<\/strong><\/a> gallery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This past week my friend and fellow photographer Art Nadelman and I ventured down to the Fort Myers area in search of snail kites. I\u2019ve written about snail kites on a couple of occasions in the past. Most recently we had a great day photographing kites near Gainesville. But this week was the best yet&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2743],"tags":[2774],"class_list":["post-22002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-florida","tag-nature"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/220805-5-snail-kite-male-taking-off-from-perch.jpg?ver","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22002"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109967,"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22002\/revisions\/109967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}