In Florida Everglades where the Miami River rises, I had the pleasure and satisfaction of studying these remarkable birds. Gifted with extraordinary wing and tail surfaces they live almost entirely in the air, floating, soaring and circling with all the buoyancy and dash of their minor prototypes the Barn Swallows, to whom they bear a singular resemblance in shape, color, action and superlative wing power — in fact in nearly everything but size.
The three birds I observed were feeding on small snakes, apparently water moccasins, which were neatly snatched from their lurking places in the reeds and devoured on the wing. This aerial feeding was gracefully performed by a forward thrust of the talons holding the food, a mouthful being taken by bending the head suddenly downward. One of the birds carried aloft a small alligator, perhaps a foot long, but the morsel proved too obdurate and was released. At times they make long earthward sweeps like the drop of Nighthawks, apparently in a spirit of play.
No other North American bird approaches the SWALLOWTAIL in the grace and beauty of its flight; the Duck Hawk alone equals it in speed. The former conveys the impression of lightness in the air; the latter, of power and impetuosity.
Incubation starts in March in the southern parts of its range and it may be as late as June in the northern districts. Before migrating these Kites assemble in small companies, circling slowly in ascending spirals until sometimes out of eye-range — like the maneuvers of the Redtail Hawks before leaving us in autumn. Their call note is a high-pitched shrill ke wee wee, the first note short, somewhat like the cry of the Broadwing Hawk.
The Swallowtail feeds upon snakes, grasshoppers, wasp-grubs, caterpillars, lizards, frogs and other small reptiles: he is not known to attack birds or quadrupeds.
Southern United States; west to New Mexico. Rarely as far north as Canadian border.