This page contains swallow-tailed kites, bald eagles, and a barred owl.

The Swallow-tailed Kite is a bird of prey with a long forked tail and is a pleasure to watch soaring in the sky.

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This isn't even all of the kites which were overhead the afternoon of July 4, 2015.
[A view of the grey sky with ten dark birds overhead. These birds have long wings and a long forked tail and since they are soaring their wings are outstretched.]

They will soar close to each other.
[There are three kites overhead so close together they are almost touching.]

This was a low as I saw one go and the tops of those trees rise nearly four stories tall.
[There is one kite soaring above the tops of the pine trees. The bird is in focus displaying its full underside (from the side view) while the trees are blurry.]

Most of the kites I saw had longer tails than this one, but perhaps this one is still growing.
[The outline of this bird in the sky reveals there are some missing feathers in the wings. The back-end of the tail is more of a curve than a deep arc.]

Swallow-tailed kites have white undersides.
[This bird has a long vee-shaped tail which is black as are the edges of its wing feathers. The body, head, and innermost part of its flight feathers are white.]

Another view of the white undersides, but this one appears to have part of its tail missing.
[This bird is flying away from the camera and the right side of the vee in the tail is only half as long as the left side. The body, head, and innermost part of its flight feathers are white. The rest of the feathers are black.]

This kite looks like it is ready to dive-bomb something.
[This bird is flying from upper left to lower right and appears to be watching or following something below it. Both sides of its forked tail are long.]

These kites are heading to wherever the kites must spend most of their time since I only saw them for a few days.
[The kite in the upper right corner is much larger than the one in the lower left which is further away.]

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Bald Eagles live year-round in Florida, but they tend to stay away from inhabited areas, so I don't see them often.

A bald eagle high in the sky.
[The eagle with its white head, white tail, and brown body and wings flies toward the camera but canted toward the right. The tail is in the shadow of the body, so it appears less white than the head.]

Same eagle as it soared.
[The eagle flies from left to right with its front and back ends noticeably white.]

While on my morning exercise route in January 2019, I noticed a bald eagle land high in a tree not far from my hotel. It was still there when I returned so I headed out with my camera and was lucky enough to capture some images.
[The eagle is perched on a limb of a slash pine tree with its back to the camera, but its head is turned to the left so it is visible. some of the white tail feathers are visible peeping out from the dark brown feathers on its back. The head is tilted downward as if the bird is watching something below. The white feathers on the back of its head are fluffed a bit. The slash pine has very long dark green needles making a nice contrast to the white of the bird's head.]

The eagle was approximately 70-80 feet above the ground. I photographed this leafless sycamore tree to give a sense of scale of the bird's location. The small red circle to the left of the top of the sycamore tree is the bird. I enlarged the circle and included it in the upper left of this image.
[The white bark of the mature sycamore tree (many branches) contrast with the profuse growth of dark green slash pines behind it. Patches of blue sky show at the top and middle of the image. There is a black light pole with a light grey cement base to the right of the sycamore. Just below the top of a slash pine is a red circle. A red arrow extends from this circle to a much larger and thicker red circle in the upper left of the image. Within the larger red circle is a bald eagle perched on a branch.]

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Barred Owl

The twisted bill and the apparent missing eyes on this barred owl suggest something nasty happened to it.
[The bird lies flat on its back on the ground with its head cocked toward its left and its upper yellow beak twisted away from the lower half. The left wing is on ghte ground slightly spread while the right is atop its body. The tail is spread out and its thick legs are lying atop it. The bird has stripes of dark and light brown with some white.]

A close view of its thick legs and the top of its head with what appears to be sunken area where the left eye would be.
[Two photos spliced together. On the left is the furry (feathery?) thick legs of the owl lying atop the long tail feathers. On the right is a ground level view of the top of the head and what can be seen of the body from that view which includes parts of the wings and the upper half of its yellow bill. ]

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All photos © S. M. Garver