White-Tailed Kite
Elanus leucurus
The White-Tailed Kite is a year-round resident along the Californian coast, and can also be found along some Mexican and southern U.S. coastal areas as well. It generally hunts from the air, hovering perhaps 20-40 feet above potential prey that it spots. It was hovering in the left photograph, but because it wanted a perch below that was temporarily occupied by a Red-Tailed Hawk. The Hawk gave up, and the juvenile White-Tailed Kite happily seized the perch as shown in the right photograph. The rufous coloration in both photographs reveals it to be a juvenile; the adults are all white underneath up through the neck area. These photographs were taken at the Point Isabel Regional Shoreline, CA on January 9, 2017. (Click on images to see enlarged versions.)