Swallow-tailed Kites 
191 
lected on 15 July. At about 1800 hours it descended from a flock 
of 15-20 birds soaring above the canopy of the swamp forest adja- 
cent to the river and made repeated passes at some tangled branches 
hanging over the river. The bird would glide into the area, reach 
out for prey items with its talons, miss, glide out over the river, 
circle up over the sites, and glide back to repeat the attempted 
catch. We did not see the prey item. This behavior was repeated at 
least four times before the bird was collected. The stomach con- 
tained three adult Carolina anoles (Anolis carolinensis), various beetles, 
and true bugs. 
We examined the stomachs (gizzards) of all 12 birds collected 
for food items. The two described above and one other individual 
were examined only superficially in the field. The stomachs of the 
remaining nine birds were preserved in formalin. Eight were exam- 
ined later (Table 1), and one was lost. Mass of individual stomach 
contents ranged from 11.7 to 47.8 g, and by volume each con- 
tained 10-62 mL of food. Based on the degree of digestion, the 
bat was probably eaten the evening before the bird was collected. 
It would be interesting to know if the bat was captured while it 
was roosting or in flight because Pipistrells often emerge before 
dark. 
Insects represented the bulk of the diet. Those consumed 
varied between 8 and 50 mm in length, whereas the majority were 
between 20 and 30 mm long (Fig. 2). Several of the prey organ- 
isms are flightless, many do not fly regularly, and some were 
in immature stages (grasshoppers [Acrididae], bugs) which were 
not yet capable of flight. We surmised that the majority of feeding 
activity consists of capturing prey from the tree tops or shrubs, by 
repeatedly swooping in vegetation until prey is flushed, or a com- 
bination of these two methods. The presence of palmetto weevils 
(. Rhynchophorus cruenlatus ) in all stomachs we examined in- 
dicates that a large percentage of feeding is done in the crowns 
of cabbage palms, a tree common in the higher portions of river 
swamp forest. The presence of wheel ( Arilus cristatus ) and assassin 
bugs (Reduviidae), a bee, and several other insects suggests that 
the kites may have been foraging around the flowering stalks of 
the palmettos. A local resident reported seeing on several occasions 
kites repeatedly flying around the tops of these palms. Percentages 
for major prey items we identified are shown in Figure 3. 
Snyder (1974:91) reports two types of foraging behavior: talon- 
grabbing of resting prey from the outer leaves and branches of 
trees, and captures of flying prey “so effortless that it did not ever 
appear to disturb the soaring pattern of the bird.” Observations of 
