A male Florida Snail Kite in freshwater marsh
Photo credit: FFWS
Snail Kite call graciously gifted by Manuel Grosselet

The Endangered Birds of Florida

The Florida Snail Kite
Rostrhamus sociabilis plumbeus

To begin: what is a Bird?

A Bird is a warm blooded, bipedal (two legs)

vertebrate (has a backbone) with feathers,

bills and wings and most can fly.

It lays eggs to reproduce and many theories have

it classified as a direct descendant of Dinosaurs,

dating back to the Jurassic period.

The Endangered Florida Snail Kite, also known as the Everglades Kite,

is the most endangered raptor in the United States.

The thoughtless drainage of their Ancestral Habitat, Lake Okeechobee,

reduced them to the tragic numbers in the 1960's of 25.

Then with some help, they rebounded in the 1990's to about 700.

Recently the Kite's numbers had climbed to around 400 breeding pairs,

but the draining of the lake and severe drought conditions have reduced their

numbers once again to the point where they have nearly completely abandoned

Lake Okeechobee and moved further north into Lake Toho.

This move is not without new challenges however, the Hydrilla plant in Lake Toho,

the main food source for what has always been the Kite's staple food,

the apple snail, is in a tug of war between FWS and local boaters.

The boaters want the plant gone because it stalls the motors on their boats,

the FWS people say "not so fast," how about a little compromise here.

As if that were not enough of an issue, now their is a new problem in the Kite's future,

an Air Boat business wants to move into the Lake and run at least 20 tours a day.

This disastrous event will in all likelihood kill off not only the snails, but the snail kite along with it.

You can read more about this on my Google Blog:

The Snail Kite

A male Florida Snail Kite holding an apple snail
Photo credit: NPS