On average, over the decades, about 40% of nests produce fledglings in Florida. The Snail Kite is a bird of prey with a very particular appetite: it feeds almost exclusively on apple snails. In drought years, such as 1974, as few as 17% of nests have been successful, whereas almost 90% have been successful in years with optimal conditions, meaning stable water levels conducive to apple snails. Biologists in Florida have studied Snail Kite nest success very carefully since 1968.Kites usually fly over open water and drop down to catch snails up to 6 inches deep in the water. Limpkins can hunt snails in dense reedbeds and other thick vegetation, wading in on their long legs and using their long bills to move floating vegetation to look for snails. These very different bird species coexist peacefully for the most part, largely segregated by their methods of hunting. they occur only in Florida and are listed as Federally Endangered. They are common in Central and South America but in the U.S.
Both the Limpkin (a large wading bird related to rails) and the Snail Kite (a raptor) evolved to feed almost entirely on freshwater apple snails (genus Pomacea). Unlike most other raptors, Snail Kites nest in colonies and roost communally, sometimes among other waterbirds such as herons and Anhingas.Over the last century, as much of the Everglades was drained, the bird's population declined. Snail Kite was unknown to science until 1817, when French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot described a specimen taken from near the Rio de la Plata, Argentina. The Everglade snail kite is a raptor, similar to a hawk, that eats just one thing: snails.
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