The young birds leave the nest another 30 to 35 days after hatching. They have one clutch a year which takes 30 to 32 days to hatch.
Mississippi kites nest in colonies and both parents (paired up before arriving at the nesting site) incubate the eggs and care for the young. In the past 75 years, they have undergone changes in nesting habitat from use of forest and savanna, to include shelterbelts and are now very common nesters in urban areas of all sizes in the western south-central states. Mississippi Kites usually lay two white eggs (rarely one or three) in twig nests that rest in a variety of deciduous trees. They migrate to southern sub tropical South America in the winter. Breeding territory has expanded in recent years and Mississippi Kites have been sighted in the southern New England states. Mississippi Kites breed across the central and southern United States. Their call is a high pitched squeak, sounding similar to that of a squeaky dog toy. They have also been known to eat small amphibians, rabbits, and occasionally smaller birds. They eat cicada, grasshoppers, and other crop damaging insects, making them economically important. Their diet consists mostly of insects which they capture in flight. It is not uncommon to see several circling in the same area. Mississippi Kites have narrow, pointed wings and are graceful in flight, often appearing to float in the air. Young kites have banded tails and streaked bodies. Males and females look alike, but the males are slightly paler on the head and neck. Adults are gray with darker gray on their tail feathers and outer wings and lighter gray on their heads and inner wings.
It is 12 to 14 inches (30-36 cm) beak to tail and has a wingspan averaging 3 feet (91 cm). The Mississippi Kite, Ictinia mississippiensis, is a small bird of prey in the family Accipitridae.
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