Figure 95 (above). Seasonal occurrence of the Mississippi Kite in California. A bird of the south-central and southeastern United States, its tendency to stray to California in late spring is shared by several other long-distance migrants with strong southerly components to their breeding ranges (e.g., the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, White-eyed Vireo, Kentucky Warbler, and Hooded Warbler).

 

Figure 96 (right). Southern coastal and southeastern California account for most of the 33 Mississippi Kites accepted through 2003, with a notable concentration at Furnace Creek Ranch, Inyo County. Countering the overall southerly pattern, the four records of coastal fall vagrants include two from the Marin Headlands, Marin County, and another from Cape Mendocino, Humboldt County.

 

Figure 208. This Mississippi Kite was present from 5 to 11 June 1989 in Huntington Beach, Orange County, providing one of few spring records for the Pacific coast. This photograph, showing the banded tail and heavily marked underwing coverts of a year-old bird, was taken on 6 June (1989-092; James R. Gallagher).

 

 

 

 

 

 

MISSISSIPPI KITE Ictinia mississippiensis (Wilson, 1811)

Accepted: 33 (67%)	Treated in Appendix H: yes
Not accepted: 16	CBRC review: all records
Not submitted/reviewed: 3	Large color image: see Figures

This raptor breeds across much of the southeastern and south-central United States, with isolated western populations in central New Mexico and central and southeastern Arizona. Following widespread declines in the early twentieth century, the species recovered and spread westward into the Southwest (Parker and Ogden 1979), and more recently its range has expanded northward into Virginia and the Upper Midwest (e.g., Dinsmore 2001). The wintering grounds are in central South America. The AOU (1998) stated that “scattered sight reports suggest casual or occasional wintering north as far as southern Texas and Florida,” but we are unaware of any documented instances of overwintering in North or Middle America. A bird that presumably did so was photographed on 10 January 1988 at Todos Santos in southern Baja California Sur (Erickson et al. 2001), and daily totals of up to eight birds at nearby Miraflores on 1–2 October 2005 (NAB 60:144) suggest that small numbers of southbound migrants may pass through this region regularly. Migrants are also found very rarely north and west of the usual range, exceptionally in southern Saskatchewan, southwestern Quebec, and Nova Scotia.

California’s first Mississippi Kite was a year-old male collected on 18 June 1933 in Goleta, Santa Barbara County (Willet 1933). About two-thirds of the accepted records (22 of 33) have occurred between 17 May and 21 June (Figure 95); see also Appendix H. Most spring vagrants have been found in the Mojave Desert and Great Basin, with Furnace Creek Ranch in Death Valley (Inyo County) being especially well represented (Figure 96). Four records are from summer and seven are from fall. The state’s earliest autumnal migrant was found on 30 August 1986 at Oasis, Mono County. Four first-fall birds have been recorded at coastal promontories between 6 and 26 September, and on 28 October 2003 a late migrant was recorded at the Marin Headlands in Marin County. A first-fall bird photographed on 11 November 1999 at Iron Mtn. Pumping Plant in San Bernardino County furnished the latest record of a Mississippi Kite in the United States west of Texas.

 

[GRAY HAWK Asturina nitida (Latham, 1790) – see hypothetical section]