ABSTRACT
The everglade or snail kite (Rostrhamus sociabilis) is a wide-ranging Neotropical species that regularly occurs in the US only in the freshwater marshes of peninsular Florida. In recent times, the kite’s range has been reduced primarily to several impoundments on the headwaters of the St. Johns River, the west side of Lake Okeechobee, and in the Everglades region. The everglade kite is highly gregarious and nomadic. It roosts colonially, often in association with anhingas and herons. Usually the kite feeds only on the freshwater apple snail (Pomacea paludosa) in Florida. Two census methods have been used for the kite: counts from an airboat along transects and counts of birds arriving at evening roost sites and observed with the aid of binoculars.
