Featured photo by Glynn Harris: Mississippi kites can be aggressive if they have a nest nearby.
The mockingbird is Mississippi’s official state bird; I looked it up. After spending several days in our neighboring state a few years ago, I’m of the opinion that whoever chose the mocker picked the wrong bird. The right choice, in my opinion, was right there all along, soaring, dipping and diving over the Mississippi terrain, the ictinia mississippiensis.
If the Latin name fails to yank your chain, try Mississippikite. The bird was so named because the first scientific specimen was collected in Mississippi, although the bird makes its summer home in other states as well. All summer long, I have enjoyed watching kites gliding and darting over the pasture across the road from my house but getting to watch Mississippi kites gliding on the Mississippi side of the Mississippi River was all I needed to convince me they should be the state bird of Mississippi.
My introduction to Mississippi kites came several years ago when Joe Mitcham, of Mitcham’s Peach Orchard fame pointed some out to me as they sailed high above his orchard. Later, a friend told me about kites nesting in a big tree in his yard just outside Ruston. On my daily walks at Lincoln Parish Park, I have seen the birds soaring around the lake and have heard reports of kites nesting at the park.
These are beautiful raptors, dark gray and white, measuring a little over a foot in length with a three-foot wingspan. While Mississippi kites will eat frogs, lizards, small snakes and rodents, the principal diet is large insects caught and eaten in mid-air. The dragonfly is the main entrée on the birds’ menu and one source I read mentioned observing Mississippi kites grabbing and eating dragonflies and the resultant shower of glitter around the action as the hapless insects’ disembodied wings, reflected in the sunlight, flutter down.
Last week, Kay and I were parked in town when I noticed a couple of Mississippi kites circling, diving and darting in the sky above us. I quickly learned why they were there when I saw what had their attention; several dragon flies were flying around.
I learned something else about these beautiful birds after checking up on them via the Internet.
Someone raised the question about the aggressiveness of Mississippi kites. “They will aggressively defend their nests and will dive at any intruder – including humans – that gets too close. A simple way to avoid getting “attacked” is to leave the area alone until after the chicks fledge.”
Several years ago while taking my daily walk around the lake at Lincoln Parish Park, I happened to stop and glance at movement in an oak above my head. There sat a Mississippi kite giving me a stare-down with its piercing eyes that told me I’d better vamoose if I knew what was good for me. Obviously, there was a nest nearby.
I have been chased from being too near nesting boxes where bluebirds were tending their young or nests in bushes occupied by mockingbirds. These mamas protecting their young were no real threat but one good look at the kite glaring down at me let me know I’d best move along quickly as I for sure didn’t want something as large as a small hawk zooming down on my noggin.
I snapped a quick photo with my phone before skedaddling on down the trail, a photo that shows those menacing red eyes. Had I lingered a few seconds more, I might have found out just what these handsome but fierce-when-protecting-nests birds are capable of.
If you’re out and about our part of the world this summer, be watching for a crow-sized bird circling around overhead. If it’s not a crow, hawk or a vulture, chances are, you’re looking at a Mississippi kite. Just don’t hang around too long where kites are nesting.