February 17, 2019, San Joaquin River Delta; February 10, 2019, San Francisco Bay. I’m lucky to live in an area where White-tailed Kites are relatively common. Yesterday we went on a birding trip through the San Joaquin River Delta with naturalist David Wimpfheimer on a boat operated by Dolphin Charters. I recommend both. Along the way we saw about sixty species. One standout was this beautiful and cooperative white-tailed kite. He watched us as we slowed to watch him and then, bored with us, he took off. He flew out about two hundred feet and then wheeled around for what I’d like to think was a fly-by for the camera, but I know he was looking for lunch. If he’s anything like his cousin who lives by the San Francisco Bay, I’ll bet it was a good one.
Last weekend we were walking on the levees in the marsh area by the bay in Sunnyvale. The walk was ostensibly for exercise, but we brought cameras too. We always bring cameras. (The weight of the big lens makes for better exercise. That’s what I tell myself. Of course, there just might be birds . . .) The kite you see below was kiting — hovering — for more than three minutes. During that time, his position over the marsh didn’t vary by more than five feet as his eyes swept the ground. Then down he went. Lunchtime.
If anybody tells me to go fly a kite, I’ll tell them that these raptors do it better.
(Nikon D850; Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR. RAW processing in DxO PhotoLab 2, final editing in Adobe Photoshop.)
AMAGA Photography Blog 
what elegance! all shades of white. Beautiful photos
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Grazie. The first time I saw a white-tailed kite I was surprised and delighted at its beauty. These are the first presentable photos of them I’ve taken. The birds themselves are elegant.
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LOVE these pictures and your description of your birding adventure! What a wonderful series of shots you got of the Kite! I have never seen this bird before, it is beautiful!
Love getting your pictures and eloquent descriptions of what you are seeing! Keep them coming! It is such a treat!
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Thank you very much. It was an extraordinary experience seeing these absolutely majestic birds. Watching them kite for minutes on end is amazing.
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Great photos! What a beautiful bird. Do you owe the kite a small rodent as a modeling fee?
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As he flew by, he called, “first one’s free!“
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Thanks for sharing your experience so wonderfully. Are the white-tails as territorial as their Mississippi cousins? I’ve had a couple of close encounters with them just walking through my neighborhood.
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I’m not sure. I’m new to birding so I have a lot of observations yet to do. I have seen them in pairs, for what that’s worth.
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What a bird! See why they are called Kites. Have never seen one, but the boat trip would be great.
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Thank you. It is amazing to watch them hover—kite—for minutes on end. It makes photography less challenging, however!
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This is fun to see – i wasn’t aware that you can see kites in the SF area. I’ll get down there one of these days, and when I do, I must remember to look for them, maybe on that boat….
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Oh, yes. We do have kites. I’m glad we have them!
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I’m really loving the theme/design of your blog. Do you ever run into any web browser compatibility
problems? A couple of my blog audience have complained about my website not working correctly in Explorer
but looks great in Safari. Do you have any suggestions to help fix this
issue?
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Thanks very much. Never had any complaints about browser compatibility. I would think/hope that WP tests the themes thoroughly.
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