White-tailed Kite

(Elanus leucurus)

On Friday, 16 December 2005, between 12:16 p.m and 12:30 p.m. PT, I observed a pair of White-tailed Kites engaged in physical interactions in flight.  The kites would meet each other mid-air, appear to lock talons, and fall to the ground.  As they dropped, they would separate, and attempt to regroup relatively quickly.  Cropped versions of some of the photos I took of this behavior are below.  Per the date/time stamp of my camera, the photos below (with the exception of the last two, which are of a lone bird) were taken during a 90 second span.

From the Birds of North America account for White-tailed Kite*, "One of rarest interactions is the Talon Grapple or Helicopter Flight, first described by Watson (1940); occurs between territory holders and intruding kites (Watson 1940, Wright 1978, JRD). One bird maintains a higher flight position than the other, though both gain altitude up to about 35–75 m (JRD). Upper bird momentarily hovers with feet hanging while lower bird reaches up with its feet and grasps the upper bird’s feet. Watson (1940) reported that on a few occasions one bird held the wings of the other with its bill or feet. The two then spiral down in a “whirling mass” (Watson 1940). Usually the birds release their hold and separate only to repeat the sequence (Watson 1940, JRD), although they have been observed to spiral until reaching the ground (Wright 1978, JRD)."

*Dunk, J. R. 1995. White-tailed Kite (Elanus leucurus). In The Birds of North America, No. 178 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, and The American Ornithologists’ Union, Washington, D.C.;doi:10.2173/bna.178

Farmer Rd, Polk County, Oregon, USA, 16 December 2005