American Swallow-tailed Kite

Status One record. In August 1905, Adelbert Wilson found one by the roadside near his home in Lower East Pubnico, Yarmouth County, so weak from injury or starvation that it was unable to fly and died soon thereafter. The specimen was mounted by Yarmouth taxidermist Benjamin Doane, and remained in the Wilson home until 1945. A casual reference to "fork-tailed hawks" by Gilpin (1881) lacks substance.

Remarks These elegant birds of prey breed locally in South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana, south to South America. A few have wandered as far north as southern Canada, and there are recent records from New England.