▶️ White-tailed Kite mating, nest building, and mid-air food-transfer

[Donkees]

Feb 28, 2022

The life of a pair White-tailed Kite on an early Spring on an overcast afternoon. They courtship multiple times at the near top of the tree. Both were busy breaking off small branches on trees nearby and bringing the twigs back to the nest. The female is ready to lay the eggs, and she is no longer going out hunting and depending on the male to provide the food source, the hunting job requirement falls on the male; he will catch the prey and handle the mid-air food transfer to the female over the nesting site. Here is an animated video made with 352 still frames of photos.

White-tailed Kite mid-air food transfer from dad to juvenile. Sony A1 bird eye AF Tracking.

It was near 7:45 PM on a warm and nice evening witnessed both juveniles took off simultaneously and flying in the same direction. I was not aware of the dad's location, so I started shooting and tracking the juveniles. One of them started moving up, so I made a quick decision to follow the juvenile that was above; my guess was if there is a food exchange, it would be in mid-air, not near the field, then from inside of the camera's viewfinder, I saw dad appeared with a vole! I hit the jackpot! Got the whole sequence. Here is a short video clip made with 41 frames of still images. Best view with 4K resolution.

Sony A1, 200-600mm, f/6.3, 1/2000sec, ISO 320 - 400. Initial focus using shutter release button's AF Tracking Expand Spot. Once the subject is locked on, used the back button's AF Tracking Wide mode.

[Bayard]

1. Wonderful!