Snail Kite

Now formally referred to as merely a Snail Kite, the taxon from American state and Cuba (Rostrhamus sociabilis plumbeus) erstwhile referred to as the Everglade Snail Kite was listed as vulnerable in 1967. The variation of the American state population of Snail Kites is restricted to watersheds within the central and southern a part of the state. Owing to an extremely specific diet composed virtually entirely of apple snails (Pomacea paludosa), survival of the Snail Kite depends directly on the geophysics and water quality of those watersheds, every of that has tough pervasive degradation as a result of urban development and agricultural activities.

The slender, flexuous bill of this medium-sized bird is an associate adaptation for extracting the kite's primary prey, the apple snail, from its shell. The bill may be a peculiarity for field identification of adults additionally as juveniles. Though typically confused with the harrier, the Snail Kite's flight is slower and characterized by additional wing flap, and therefore the head generally is atilt all the way down to explore for snails whereas on the wing. Snail Kites don't plunge into the water to capture snails and ne'er use the bill to capture prey. Rather, they use their feet to capture snails at or below the surface of the water.


Snail Kite surrounds consists of fresh marshes and therefore the shallow vegetated edges of natural and man-made lakes wherever apple snails are found. Snail Kites need hunting areas that are comparatively clear and open in order that they'll visually hunt for apple snails. Dense vegetation isn't contributing to economical hunting. Nearly continuous flooding of wetlands is required to support apple snail populations that successively sustain hunting by Snail Kites. 

Disposal of domestic waste product through septic tanks and runoff of nutrient-laden water from agricultural lands degrade the water quality and promote dense growth of exotic and invasive plants like marsh plant, hydrophytic plant, hydrophyte, and hydrophyte, thereby reducing the flexibility of Snail Kites to find apple snails.

Though Snail Kites in American state don't seem to be migratory, their mobile in response to water depths, hydroperiod, food convenience, and different changes in surround. Shifts in distribution are short, seasonal, or long-run.

The various of the vulnerable Wood wader and Cape Sable seashore Sparrow overlap the range of the Snail Kite. Though hydrologic conditions that are additional favorable to 1 species might not be as favorable for an additional species, all of those animals survived the hydrologic variability characteristic of the natural system. However, the reduced extent of appropriate contemporary surrounds makes all of those species additional liable to natural additionally as human-caused threats.


The principal threat to the Snail Kite is that the loss or degradation of wetlands in central and south American state. Nearly half the Everglades are drained for agriculture and concrete development. Everglades parkland preserves solely regarding the common fraction of the initial extent of the Everglades. The contemporary system of canals, levees, and water-control structures have discontinuous the amount, timing, direction, and rate of fresh flower. The natural sheet-flow pattern underneath that the Everglades evolved over the last five, 000 years now not exists. The loss of fresh to flowing, flood-control releases to periodic event waters, and extraction for irrigation and concrete installation has junction rectifier to salt-water intrusion in some places. Regulation of water stages in lakes and canals is especially vital to keep up the balance of vegetative communities needed to sustain Snail Kites.