Some seem to be settling on to territories, and I’ve seen one more than a few times at the Route 70/27 intersection in Lake Placid. In one day, I saw 9 in Hendry County in various locations, then 5 together in Highlands County. Usually, when you see one, you start noticing more and more in the air nearby one day, I had three in my scope at once! My biggest group so far this year has been six, but last year around this time, Alex and I saw 14 glide over us in a straight line while driving through Orlando. Habitat: After spending the fall and winter in South America, kites arrive in Florida in early March to breed. The first one I saw this season was north of Indiantown on March 1, and I’ve seen more almost every day since in Glades, Highlands, and Hendry counties. The sight of a swallow-tailed kite is unforgettable: a black-and-white raptor (bird of prey) with a deeply forked tail soaring through the summer sky. Members of this species that breed in the United States spend the winter in South America, and can be seen in large groups in southern Florida starting in late February each year like clock work.

They used to be found as far north as Minnesota, but their range has decreased with habitat destruction. 'We have all benefitted from the convenience of plastics, but plastics do not go away once produced,' Walters says.Swallow-tailed Kites are found in forested wetlands in tropical and subtropical regions of Central and South America, and also on the south east and Gulf Coasts. Walters says some solutions to the problem could be removing plastic from open landfills, carefully discarding plastic trash, buying natural fabrics instead of plastic-based ones, and retrofitting water treatment plants and stormwater drains to capture microplastics. Microfibers can come from synthetic ropes or clothing and may end up in ecosystems through wastewater from clothes-washing machines.īlue and clear microplastics were the most common colors identified, but the reasons for this could range from these being the dominant colors of the plastics in the landscape to birds confusing these colors with appropriate prey or nesting materials, according to the study. The most common types of microplastic in the birds were microfibers, which accounted for 86 percent of the plastics found. Using dissecting microscopes and spectroscopy, the researchers found microplastics in the digestive systems of all birds examined, with nearly 1,200 pieces of plastic pulled from the 63 birds. The birds were collected from throughout Central Florida.

With the center's permits, UCF researchers were able to examine the stomach contents of 63 birds that were dead when they arrived at the center or died 24 hours after they arrived. However, birds of prey have not been thoroughly examined before, partly due to their protected status.Ĭarlin and Walters were able to overcome this by working with the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland, Florida, a rehabilitation center that helps injured raptors. There have also been recent reports of whales dying from eating dozens of pounds of plastic, including plastic bags. Past studies have documented increasing amounts of microplastics in the guts of fish, marine birds, and filter-feeding invertebrates, such as oysters. Ingestion of large pieces of plastic by animals was first noted in the 1960s, and an increased focus on microplastic ingestion started around 2010, she says. Microplastic contamination of the environment likely began not long after the first piece of plastic was discarded, says Linda Walters, a Pegasus Professor in UCF's Department of Biology and study co-author.

'Birds of prey are top predators in the ecosystem and by changing the population or health status of the top predator, it completely alters all of the animals, organisms and habitats below them on the food web,' says Julia Carlin, the study's lead author and a graduate of UCF's Department of Biology. The accumulation of microplastics in their digestive systems could lead to poisoning, starvation and death. The research, which was published online recently in the journal Environmental Pollution, is important because birds of prey are critical to a functioning ecosystem. Microplastics are small plastic pieces-less than the size of a pencil tip-that come from larger pieces of plastic, such as synthetic clothes, or that are made small for use in health and beauty products or industrial purposes.

Florida birds of prey