English            -           Snail kite

Portuguese    -            Gavião-caramujeiro

Latin                -            Rostrhamus sociabilis

The Snail Kite is definitely best photographed under sunny conditions so the redness of the eyes is obvious. The first 2 photos of a male Snail Kite were taken at Passo do Lonta which is a pousada, located in the Pantanal, Mato Grosso do Sul. Because of Passo do Lontras location, in the wet season part of the land is in flood, the accommodation, restaurant, etc are built on stilts. To get to your accommodation you have to walk along a board walk. In most cases there is a swamp on both sides. Anyway I photographed the Snail kite when I was walking along the board walk and noticed it sitting in a tree, very close to the boardwalk. It didn’t seem to take much notice of me as it seemed to be watching something in the water. Suddenly it swooped down, grabbed something from the water and landed back on the railing of the boardwalk, very close to where i was standing. What it grabbed, as its name suggests, was a snail. The 3rd photo is of a Juvenile Snail Kite and was taken next to a canal, near the town of Miranda, Mato Grosso do Sul. This photo was taken late in the afternoon on a cloudy day, so it was taken under a low light situation, therefore the eye colour of the Snail Kite doesn’t stand out as in the first 2 photos.

* Males and females are dissimilar in appearance. The male has bluish black plumage while the female has a white face and the rest of her is brown streaked.

* The Snail Kite can reach lengths up to 48 cm and weigh around 1/2 kg.

* They have a wing span of 1.2 mrs.

* They are found in the southern parts of Florida, in the Caribbean and in parts of South America. 

* The Snail Kite inhabit freshwater wetlands, marshes and edges of the lakes.

* True to its name, the Snail Kite feeds almost exclusively on freshwater snails but will also take crabs, crayfish, rodents.

* The Snail Kite calls sounds like a “ka-ka-ka-ka-ka”.

* Snail kites are able to mate all year round.

* Females lay 2-4 eggs, incubated for 28 days by both parents. After 7 weeks the chicks fledge.

* The Snail Kite is classified as s species “of least concern” on the IUCN red list. The main threat the Snail Kite faces is the draining and altering of their marsh and wetland habitats. As you can imagine, a bird that is so dependent on just one prey item for food can be very vulnerable to changes in habitat. If this prey animal disappears, the Snail Kite is left with little to eat.