Date: 6/5/26 12:33 pm From: 'Dan Stringer' via Colorado Birds <cobirds...> Subject: [cobirds] Kite Behavior Otero County
On April 2nd Michael Kiessig I and were observing Black Terns at Holbrook
Reservoir, when he found a Mississippi Kite over the water, foraging in the
same manner as the terns. Cruising low and catching tiny insects, moving
fast, kind of erratic yet graceful…like a Black Tern (which I see feeding
on small insects much more often than small fish). It even appeared able to
skim the surface, once dipping a wingtip in the water as it turned sideways
and shot back up in the air.
This was the first time I’d seen a kite working so low. In my previous
observations of them feeding, they were soaring and gliding fairly high to
very high, where their food source was.
This day was light rain, misty all morning, a bit of fog. It made me wonder
if those weather conditions simply prevented the small bugs from being
higher in the air, instead almost at ground level / water level. Or if the
preferred hatch of the moment was an aquatic insect that emerges and never
goes up very far in the air.
This one-off, low-down sighting was a bit surprising to me, and very fun to
watch.
Dan Stringer
Larkspur, CO
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