Away from these areas it has to be considered a rare, local bird in Texas. Both Oberholser (1974) and the TBBAP registered one breeding record in the vicinity of El Paso (31106), far to the west of any other records in the state. Otherwise its overall distribution is similar to that reported by Oberholser (1974) except for the fact that he listed scattered summer reports along the middle Rio Grande, where TBBAP volunteers were unable to find the bird. There was even one confirmed record in the extreme northeast of the state at latilong 33094, where Oberholser (1974) did not report any breeding. Away from this area, there were several records (including a number of confirmed reports) in the southeast, centered around Matagorda County (28095), and scattered records throughout the northeast. It is fairly common in this area and it was confirmed as a breeder regularly in the Panhandle. When cicadas are abundant (as they were in the vicinity of Lubbock in 1991) they make up the bulk of the diet (Bolen & Flores 1993).ĭISTRIBUTION: In Texas the Mississippi Kite is mainly restricted to the north-central portion of the state during the breeding season. It feeds extensively on large insects including grasshoppers, cicadas, beetles, and dragonflies (Oberholser 1974) but will also eat bats, lizards, and mice (Bent 1937, Ehrlich 1988, Glinski & Ohmart 1983). The Mississippi Kite is prone to wandering with individuals regularly turning up in such widely scattered locations as South Dakota (Berkey 1987) and Massachusetts (Mactavish 1987). However, Oberholser (1974) listed five scattered records of individuals wintering in southern Texas. During migration this kite undertakes a long migration as it spends the winter months in South America. It reaches its maximum abundance in the central states of Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana (Price et al. It breeds across the southern states from Florida as far west as Arizona and New Mexico (A.O.U. The Mississippi Kite is a fairly common breeding raptor throughout its somewhat restricted range.
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