White-tailed Kites increased in number in California from the late 1930s into the 1970s (
San Diego County Bird Atlas, 2004, Philip Unitt). Since then, urban sprawl has reduced the habitat these birds require in the San Diego region. I don't have very many agricultural fields or riparian corridors near my home in Escondido. So I see far fewer kites than I wish. So I present a couple of photos I took recently, even if they aren't exceptional. Still, hovering kites are always fun.
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| White-tailed Kite. Tijuana River Valley, California. January 20, 2019. |
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photos of White-tailed Kite in San Diego from eBird. Click on the photos to rate (1 awful, 2 poor but identifiable, 3 average or small, 4 very good, 5 magazine cover worthy).
I am pretty certain I saw one of these today downtown. Are they known to ever go downtown? It was really odd because it literally just came out of nowhere. One minute I am counting boring sparrows and pigeons. And the next minute I am watching this random big graceful swan-like white hawk come sailing by about the size of a big crow or raven with long skinny body and long skinny wings with dark big eyes, does a couple circular glides around (did not hoover), scares off 'all' the pigeons and sparrows that I was in the middle of counting, and then did like this graceful sort of falling sideways dive behind the building across the street like it was bowing out at the end of it's performance saying, "That's all folks." And then it was never to be seen again... And I was like, did this just really happen? Anyways, I am pretty sure it happened, but I am trying to figure out if this is not that unusual that it would happen and should keep a look out for more of them, or if it was really unusual that it happened, or perhaps so unusual that I should re-evaluate what bird it was that I saw.
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