The description left me puzzled, too, because it also said of the Everglade Kite, “Flight is floppy, not kite-like.” Since it was a kite, wouldn’t its flight be the very definition of kite-like flight? But I quickly learned that some of the birds called kites, such as the Swallow-tailed Kite, belong to entirely different genera than the Everglade Kite-some authorities even put them in different subfamilies. The Golden Guide said that it was very rare but tame-that sounded like a cool combination-and “Feeds solely on a freshwater snail ( Pomacea), which it removes from shell with its long hooked beak.” Imagine a beautiful hawk that eats just one thing-a big snail-and has an amazingly curved, sharp bill pretty much worthless for anything except pulling out the snail innards from the shell. That intrigued me, but even so, I doubt if I’d have become obsessed with the Everglade Kite if I hadn’t read the species entries about it. That struck me as especially odd, because owls are rather sedentary or, when they do fly, have a direct flight, while as a verb, one definition of “kite” is, “ to go in a rapid, carefree, or flighty manner.” I was intrigued with the very idea of calling any raptor a “kite,” so obviously had to look up the etymology: “kite” comes from Middle English, from Old English cȳta akin to Middle High German kūze for owl.

When I started scrutinizing my field guides as a brand new birder, one of the birds I quickly became obsessed with trying to find was the Everglade Kite. My original Golden Guide showing the Everglade Kite

Snail kite birds