192 
David S. Lee and Mary K. Clark 
PREY SIZE IN MM 
Fig. 2. Prey size of food items recovered from the stomachs of eight 
American swallow-tailed kites ( Elanoides forficatus) based on 345 identi- 
fied items. 
earlier workers and our observations suggest that all feeding is cer- 
tainly done on the wing. 
Popular accounts of swallow-tailed kites feeding emphasize 
aquatic snakes and dragonflies as important food items. Synder’s 
(1974) observation of prey items brought to nests by parents is one 
of the few systematic treatments of feeding and food habits. He 
observed that very few insects were brought to the nest, and the 
most conspicuous food items were anoles, hylid frogs, and nestling 
birds. Nevertheless, Synder (1974:91) noted that he “often observed 
adults hawking insects and believed that such food may form a 
significant fraction of adult diet.” It is interesting that although we 
saw many genera of dragonflies in great abundance along the St. 
Johns River, none was recovered as prey items in the stomachs of 
birds we collected. 
Most of the food items in Table 1 were certainly not captured 
when the prey items were flying. A possible exception is the im- 
ported fire ant ( Solenopsis invicta), as all individuals recovered were 
winged queen ants. Queen fire ants are capable of flight and could 
easily have been captured while flying, although exhausted ants 
