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active MIKI nest in Roanoke Rapids, NC




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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