Sue Newland, a board member of the Topeka Audubon Society, spotted the bird flying Tuesday near the Cedar Crest governor's mansion and reported it to fellow birdwatchers, which led to a mass migration to southwest Topeka by birders from across the state. The global population is estimated at 150,000 birds, and it is considered a species of conservation concern in Mississippi, making it one of the most threatened land birds currently without federal protection from the Endangered Species Act of 1973.
Today, according to the Nature Conservancy, the swallow-tailed kite only inhabits about 5 percent of its historic range. Their diet consists of dragonflies, butterflies, beetles, snakes, frogs, lizards and small birds plucked out of the air mid-flight. Swallow-tailed kites can be easily identified by their 4-foot wingspan, striking black and white plumage and deeply forked tail, according to descriptions from the Nature Conservancy. They were historically native birds of Kansas and much of the Midwest, appearing as far north as Minnesota, and the Aububon Society says they could someday return to those lands because of a warming climate. Though the birds are now a rare sight in Kansas, they are still fairly common in the southern United States, the Gulf of Mexico and parts of Central America during breeding season and year-round in South America, according to Birds of North America. There was quite a stir this week among birdwatchers after the sighting of a swallow-tailed kite, a migratory bird of prey that hasn't been seen in Shawnee County since the 1970s.
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