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active MIKI nest in Roanoke Rapids, NC
- To: carolinabirds@acpub.duke.edu
- Subject: active MIKI nest in Roanoke Rapids, NC
- From: "Frank Enders" <fkenders@hotmail.com>
- Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2003 20:48:24 -0400
- Delivered-to: pardo@metalab.unc.edu
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
For several weeks a kite nest has been under observation in Roanoke Rapids,
NC. The small young is (are) not yet visible. One or two adults are
reliable. Nest is in a white oak.
The man who found it has seen maybe 4 pairs in town. Makes sense. The
first nesting area, known for several years, plus this nest makes at least
two pairs. The finder would show you the nest except his phone is at his
father's house.
If you are in the area on a Saturday, I leave the Roanoke Valley Farmers
Market on Highway 158 W around noon and drive past the nest on my way home.
Or, leave a message on my answering machine 252-583-7371, or try my email (,
which I check maybe once every two weeks).
Considering how localized the birds are at the nest, and how inconspicuous
on the nest during incubation. I would say "Good Luck!" at finding nests.
The bird certainly nested for several years in Roanoke Rapids, with young
coming off in late July, without the actual nest being discovered there.
This nest was found because a kite landed on the nest while an observer was
walking past. He walked past this site every schoolday with his daughter on
her way to school. And, he lives next door to the other, suspected nest
site f rom which young have been fledging for seveal years!
In the Bent's Life History account, it was stated the kites in Oklahoma
nested most often in cottonwoods or sweetgums "because" they were such dense
trees that the nest was so difficult to locate in them; the account says
oaks were almost never used because they were too open in structure. In
Roanoke Rapids we think oaks are used, but it is hard to spot a nest
(looking like a jay nest) in the top of a shade tree.
The nest in June looked like a surprisingly small nest, near the top of the
tree in a crotch, with almost all the adult's tail being visible beyond the
cup. The tail looked like part of the tree, a stub, except it changed
position occasionally.
-Frank Enders, Halifax, NC
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