Is this a White Tailed Kite?

[casportpony]

I really enjoy taking bird pictures. Here are some of what I think is a Cooper's Hawk:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/gallery/albums/coopers-hawk.7427924/

 

[casportpony]

We live quite close to a national park/reserve and have some great birds and wildlife.
We have some great birdsong (very loud too) but there are some that we wish would go away
I personally love the birds of prey, they are amazing. Also help to keep rats/mice down and also baby snakes

I'm fascinated by all birds, snakes, too!

 

[drumstick diva]

I am fascinated by birds but, don't even like to read the sssssssss word. I have an old hoe that was never sharp. I didn't know back then that the stores don't have sharp ones on display. You either pay the store to sharpen them or do it yourself.

Any way if I saw sssss frolicking around the house or yard , I would go after them with the SSSSS Stick as I call it. I could whack them a dozen times and leave some dents in them but never managed to kill any. I wasn't trying to torture them. My friend said she just chops their head off with a hoe. She must have been an expert.

Anything that could make my mom and I scream like a banshee and raise heartbeats off the charts was not what we considered harmless.

 

[Kathy Golla]

I live in Northern California and the pic you took is definitely a white tailed kite.
we have those living all over our neighborhood.

 

[casportpony]

I live in Northern California and the pic you took is definitely a white tailed kite.
we have those living all over our neighborhood.

Thanks!

 

[Baumshell28]

I am in Louisiana and that looks identical to the white tailed kite that lives, nests, raises young & hunts in a humongous tree & grass lot between mine & my neighbors house when not migrating every year. Absolutely beautiful birds, but very aggressive hunters. Sometimes let my dozen 1-month old hens out in the yard in a temporary chicken wire “play pen”, but I have to sit by my girls with the water hose since the kites have decided that it should be easy to grab one even if I’m in the yard too!

 

[cmom]

It looks like it could be a White Tail Kite to me. Spring is when we see the Swallow Tail Kites here in Florida. When we see a Kite here we say summer isn't far away. We saw our first Kite for this year yesterday.

 

[cmom]

I think they would take a young bird if given the opportunity. We had a hawk grab a month old chick that was in a temporary pen next ro where my DH was cutting some wood not even 10' away. It happened very fast.

 

[pvaldes]

Elanus leucurus most probably. Beautiful animal.

Mice hunter. Benefical for your flock.

Grey ghosthawk has a different pattern of black patches in the wing.

 

[sealer39]

Well, this thread is two years old but I’ll jump in. The first bird is a white tailed kite. What @Baumshell28 your seeing would be a Mississippi Kite. They are very common here in Louisiana.