Chiavacci et al • SWALLOW-TAILED KITES IN ARKANSAS 
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FIG. 1. Swallow-tailed Kite nest sites in the White River National Wildlife Refuge, Arkansas, USA, 2001-2009. 
area. An adult flew from the nest and we observed 
the nest was completed, but contained no eggs or 
nestlings. The nest was rechecked several times 
on a weekly basis from the ground, no adults were 
present, and we considered it abandoned. We 
observed an adult on a nest in incubation position 
in 2004, 6 days after discovering it, but it was 
unoccupied during the following three nest visits, 
indicating failure. Nine days after discovering a 
nest in 2005, we recovered two dead nestlings 
weeks of age below the nest tree. Both chicks 
had wounds on their torsos and wings consistent 
with the talon spread of a Barred Owl (Strix varia) 
°r Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus). We 
believe failure of the 2006 nest may have been the 
result of rat snake (Elaphe obsoleta) depredation 
due to the presence of a long, vertical “track” 
through grease on the SNED and streaks of grease 
leading down the trunk onto the ground. We 
installed a camera in 2008 when we estimated 
nestlings were 1 week of age. Camera installation 
took ~2 hrs from the time we arrived below the 
nest tree to the time we left the nest area. The 
udult kite remained on the nest until we climbed 
to within 4 m of it. We checked the nest 2 days 
later, did not see an adult on it and, after 
reviewing our video data, discovered the adults 
did not return following camera installation. We 
climbed to the nest the following day and 
recovered two dead nestlings. 
All nests and most observations were within a 
4-km area (Fig. 1). The 2004, 2005, 2006, and 
2008 nests were 3.4 km, 190 m, 270 m, and 1.6 km 
from the 2002 nest, respectively. Nests were in 
Nuttall (n = 2) and overcup oaks (n = 3), placed 
near the tops of trees at a mean (± SD) height of 
25.09 ± 4.85 m, and were positioned 0.30 ± 
2.36 m above the surrounding canopy. Nest trees 
had significantly greater DBHs than random trees 
(Table 2). Nest tree emergence above the sur¬ 
rounding canopy was greater than that of random 
trees, but not significantly so (Table 2). 
DISCUSSION 
Our documentation of a Swallow-tailed Kite 
nest in 2002 represents the first observed nesting 
attempt in Arkansas in >100 years and is a 
considerable (370 km) distance from the closest 
known nesting site in Louisiana (St. Pierre 2006). 
The individuals we observed were unbanded, but 
