Florida Snail Kite: Rostrhamus sociabilis

Appearance:

Look for a medium-sized bird of prey - males are uniformly dark gray; females and juveniles are brownish with a streaked breast and light eyebrow and cheek patch. All snail kites have a distinctive white patch at the base of the tail, ending in a dark band with a narrow white edge.

Habitat: Historically, snail kites were found from the Everglades to just southeast of Tallahassee, but wetland drainage and development eliminated or altered its shallow freshwater foraging habitat

Behavior:

The Florida snail kite is aptly named - it feeds almost exclusively on apple snails and, in the United States, is found only in Florida.
The species was listed as endangered in 1967. Today, the population is considered to be stable, but extremely vulnerable to the stresses of habitat loss, prolonged droughts and anything that affects the availability of apple snails, its primary food.