#rostrhamus

[herpsandbirds]

Snail Kite (Rostrhamus sociabilis), male, EAT THE TASTY APPLE SNAIL!!!, family Accipitridae, order Accipitriformes, FL, USA

Photograph by Roger Simmons

[great-and-small]

Snail kite meme #1

[birdblues]

Snail Kite

[dendroica]

A snail kite carries an apple snail over Lake Kissimmee in Florida. The loss of wetlands has caused numbers of the bird to drop to about 400 breeding pairs

Photograph: Robert F Bukaty/AP

(via The week in wildlife – in pictures | Environment | The Guardian)

[snailkites]

Some good news for this blog’s namesake!

In summary:

Snail Kites have had a dramatic population crash since 2000

A large invasive snail was introduced in 2004 and quickly outcompeted the Snail Kite’s primary food source, the apple snail

You can imagine what conservation biologists predicted… Bad news for the Snail Kite, right?

But since 2007, populations are on the rise!

The population underwent rapid directional selection (in just a few generations) for larger beaks and are happily eating the invasive snail.

An interesting case of an invasive species benefiting an endangered one.

[herpsandbirds]

Snail Kites (Rostrhamus sociabilis), EAT THJE TASTY APPLE SNAILS!!!, family Accipitridae, order Accipitriformes, northern Florida, USA

male is black

females and juveniles are streaked brown and white

Photograph by Dick Vautrinot

[herpsandbirds]

Snail Kite (Rostrhamus sociabilis), grabbing a delicious apple snail, family Accipitridae, order Accipitriformes, La Chua Trail, Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, Florida, USA

Photograph by Renee Bodine, USFWS

[elferandrade]

Snail kite por Fernando Andrade Sánchez Por Flickr: Rostrhamus sociabilis juv. Laguna de Fúquene - Colombia