Designed by Paul Smith 2006. This website is copyrighted by law.
Material contained herewith may not be used without the prior written permission of FAUNA Paraguay.
Photographs on this web-site were taken by Paul Smith, Hemme Batjes, Regis Nossent,
Alberto Esquivel, Arne Lesterhuis, José Luis Cartes, Rebecca Zarza and Hugo del Castillo and are used with their permission
SNAIL KITE Rostrhamus sociabilis
The elongated upper mandible of the Snail Kite may look a bit ridiculous, but if your diet consists entirely of water snails then you need the tools to be able to do the job. Yes the bill acts as a "snail-picker", the Kite usually holding the snail with its foot and punching a hole in the base of the shell first to loosen the grip of the snail, then reaching in and delicately extracting it before swallowing its juicy prize. Snail Kites use favoured perches for extracting their prey and the floor around them is often littered with a pile of discarded snail shells - an unmistakable sign that a Kite has been at work (Fig 10).
FIGURE 1 - Adult male ventral view, Bahía de Asunción, Departamento Central (Frank Fragano undated).
FIGURE 2 - Adult male, location unknown (Arne Lesterhuis undated).
FIGURE 3 - Adult male, Itacua, Departamento Itapúa (Paul Smith December 2006).
FIGURE 4 - Adult female, location unknown (Frank Fragano undated).
FIGURE 5 - Juvenile taking flight, location unknown (Alberto Esquivel undated).
FIGURE 6 - Juvenile, Bahía de Asunción, Departamento Central (Paul Smith October 2007).
FIGURE 7 - Juvenile, Centre de Recherche Ruta Trans-Chaco km 293, Departamento Presidente Hayes (Paul Smith September 2006).
FIGURE 8 - Adult male in flight dorsal view, location unknown (Frank Fragano undated).
FIGURE 9 - Migratory movement, location unknown (Alberto Esquivel undated).
FIGURE 10 - Snail collection, sign of feeding Snail Kites, Ruta Trans-Chaco km350 (Paul Smith October 2007).
VIDEO - Same juvenile as Fig 6 (Paul Smith October 2007).
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