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Mississippi Kite!



Today, December 19, 1999, at 9:15 a.m., while doing the Durham (NC) 
Christmas Bird Count at the Butner Gamelands, Carol Williamson and I saw 
what we think must have been a Mississippi Kite.  We were walking the swamp 
loop (the northern leg of Loop 1 on the map on Will Cook's web site that 
describes this area <http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/tbg/butner.html> ).  A 
small raptor appeared flying away from us about 50 feet in front of us and 
about 30 feet in the air.  We only saw the bird for perhaps 5-10 
seconds.  The sky was overcast, but there was plenty of brightness at the 
time.  We were using Zeiss 10X40 and Pentax 8X42 binoculars.

Details of the observation:

We only saw the underside of the bird.  The throat, breast, and belly were 
distinctly pale gray, almost white.  It had narrow, pointed wings, that 
were much blacker than the body, with gradation of gray to black, but in 
the short period of observation, it was hard to tell any particular 
pattern.  The tail was medium long, straight and square-tipped.  (Long for 
a small bird, but not as long as in a Sharp-shinned.)  The bird showed NO 
warm tones at all--no browns or reds or rust colors.  Just lighter and 
darker grays.  We did not see the upper side of the bird at all, and it 
made no sounds.  It was flapping slowly, almost gliding, as it flew 
straight away from us.  But the flight was not the flap, flap, soar, almost 
fall-out-of-the-sky pattern of a Sharp-shinned.

The bird was much too small to be a buteo, even a small 
Red-shouldered.  The wings were too narrow and pointy for a buteo or an 
accipiter.  The tail, though longish, did not seem long enough for an 
accipiter.  The contrasting dark wings and light torso rule out Merlin and 
Peregrine, and the lack of any reds or browns rules out Kestrel.  Finally, 
the bird was too small to be a Ring-billed Gull, and the dark wings were 
not just black-tipped.

Our best guess was Mississippi Kite, though December is awfully 
late.  MIKIs have been seen in this area in spring and summer.

Comments will be appreciated, but since I will be traveling starting 
tomorrow, I may have limited e-mail access for the next 10 days.

Norm

***********************************************
Norman Budnitz		919-684-3592 (day)
nbudnitz@duke.edu	919-383-0553 (eve)
			919-684-6168 (fax)

(work)	Department of Zoology, Duke University
	Box 90325, Durham NC 27708-0325
(home)	4115 Garrett Drive, Durham NC 27705-8005

PROGRESS: the victory of laughter over dogma.
(Tom Robbins, Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas)