Scavenging of Roadkill by Mississippi Kites (Ictinia mississippiensis)

Mississippi Kites (Ictinia mississippiensis) prey primarily on large-bodied aerial insects such as cicadas (Hemiptera), locusts (Orthoptera), dragon flies (Odonata), and beetles (Coleoptera) but will, occasionally, take small aerial and terrestrial vertebrate prey (Glinski and Ohmart 1983, Shaw 1985, Bader and Bednarz 2011, Chiavacci et al. 2014, Welch and Boal 2015). Mississippi Kites are aerial hunters, capturing their prey while in flight, but also glean prey from branches of trees and capture nestling birds from nests (Welch and Boal 2015, Parker 2020). Several species of Accipitriformes (e.g., Golden Eagles [Aquila chrysaetos], Ferruginous Hawks [Buteo regalis]) and Falconiformes (e.g., Merlins [Falco columbarius], Peregrine Falcons [F. peregrinus]) are known to engage in facultative scavenging (Knopper et al. 2006, McIntyre et al. 2009, Lonsdorf et al. 2018, Varland et al. 2018...