Mississippi Kite Nest – Summer 2022

birds, Nesting Birds of Missouri, wildlife, wildlife photography

Many thanks to Chris Brown and his family! They had the incredible fortune of having a Mississippi Kite nest in their front yard this summer. The nest wasn’t really viewable from their house but with great luck, the chick after having left the nest, picked a branch right outside Chris’s son’s window to sit and wait for the parents to bring in food. At this point Chris invited me over on a couple of occasions to watch and photograph. Thanks for the use of your room, Avery! Unfortunately, these couple of days I began coming down with Covid-19 symptoms, inadvertently exposing the Browns and cutting off my time there. Thankfully, none of them picked it up during my visits. Here are some of my favorites of the parents bringing in cicadas and dragonflies.

A parent bringing a cicada to the always eager chick. In this image, the hooded or otherwise maldeveloped left eye of the chick is obvious.
The awkward chick has his next bite.
Another handoff of a cicada from one of the parents.
The chick getting to work on the latest cicada.
Here, one of the parents brings in a dragonfly.
Dropping of a cicada and heading out to bring another.
Probably my favorite shot of the kites – A parent brings in a cicada shortly after the other parent dropped one off. After a few failed attempts at passing it off to the chick, the parent left the tree, presumably to eat the prey itself.

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