Animal Behavior: Mississippi Kite (Inctinia Mississippiensis) is a small North American bird of prey. These sleek pale gray-white slender, small raptors have a narrow, pointed black wing tips and black wings. Mississippi Kite females lay 1-2 eggs. Both parents incubate the eggs as well as feed the fledglings when they hatch. Adults feed the chicks for up to 8 weeks after hatching out of the egg. Young chicks start trying to leave the nest at about 4 weeks and will make their first flight at 5 weeks.

Eating Habits: The Mississippi Kite has a diet of insects, small birds, bats, and fish. They eat large flying insects, small mammals, bats, and fish. These birds can hold their captured prey in their talons and eat it while soaring through the air.

Range: The birds live in bottomland hardwood forests and in areas like prairies, parks, and urban areas. These birds are long distance migrants and migrate in flocks. They spend the winter in Southern South America.

Animal Facts: These birds are excellent aerialists and pairs of the birds often hunt together, gracefully circle above in the sky. Mississippi Kites live up to 11 years.