Swallow-tailed Kite

How to find it

Look up. A birder who saw it in Costa Rica, Panama, Peru and Bolivia noted it was always seen in flight, so scan valleys and treetops for a graceful soaring raptor. One Costa Rica birder calls it easy to see because of its showy flying and suggests hilly and mountainous areas with humid forest. Watch for the shape, the drooped wings and the bird hanging still into the wind. Tour groups have seen several kites soaring on thermals over a valley, alongside vultures and other hawks.

How to recognise it

Adults are bright white on the head, underparts and underwing. The wings, back and deeply forked tail are black. That forked tail gives the bird its name.

It is about 55 to 65 cm long, with a wingspan near 1.3 m. Males and females look alike, in sharp black and white.

Young birds look like adults, but the head and chest are lightly streaked with dusky and the back is spotted with white.

Even from far away it differs from other hawks and vultures by its shape, its slightly drooped wings and its habit of hanging still into the wind. It twists its tail almost constantly.

What it sounds like

Recording: exploreremmanuel, CC0 1.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

It glides and twirls with few wingbeats, then dives to grab prey, and it often eats on the wing, holding food in one foot. In Costa Rica it takes insects, lizards, snakes, nestlings and sometimes fruit, directly from vegetation or from the air. Adults feed their young mainly insects and lizards.

It drinks and bathes by skimming low over water. Birders in Costa Rica watched three kites doing this at a pond near the road to Agua Buena.

Where it lives

In the tropics the species uses humid lowland and upland forest, riparian forest, cloud forest and pine forest. It lives mainly in lowlands and less densely in mountains up to about 2000 m. It hunts over open areas and needs trees for nesting.

In Costa Rica it is most numerous on foothills and the lower mountain slopes. It avoids the dry northwest Pacific slope, and it is also found in the Central Valley.

When to see it

Nesting in Costa Rica runs from February to May, and a birding group saw flocks of kites in February, including a pair building a nest. A Playa Grande lodge says the kite is present there all year except from September to January.

Similar birds

The forked tail is unique among raptors, though it can recall a swallow. Its twirling flight also resembles a huge swallow. Next to vultures and other hawks, its shape and drooped wings set it apart.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The AOCR name is Elanio Tijereta, with Gavilán Tijereta as an alternate. Costa Rica's wildlife rescue guide lists the bird as Milano Tijereta.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it as a resident, rare in places, and a migrant (R, RR, M), and Costa Rica's guide to rescued wildlife lists it as Least Concern with an increasing population trend.

Photography tips

Scan valleys and treetops, where the kite hangs still into the wind and the twisting tail shows its shape. Birds skimming low over a pond to drink and bathe come within reach, as the three at the pond near the road to Agua Buena did. Look out over valleys where vultures and other hawks are riding thermals.