TRANSCRIPT:
Hello this is Dr. Tom Mullikin with SCDNR for Into the Wild.
Few birds look more effortless in flight than a swallow-tailed kite. Its black-and-white body and deeply forked tail make it easy to recognize as it circles above a South Carolina swamp.
The bird steers with small twists of that tail, often catching insects and other small prey without landing. In our state, important nesting areas remain in large freshwater forests and river systems of the Coastal Plain, including the Waccamaw region.
Swallow-tailed kites are state endangered in South Carolina, so every protected wetland forest matters. When one appears overhead, watch how little it seems to move its wings. The bird is reading rising air, turning an invisible current into a path across the sky.