We could not be more grateful to the Jacksonville Zoo for supporting our Swallow-tailed Kite research! They funded both the tagging and tracking of a new adult Swallow-tailed Kite AND our Swallow-tailed Kite population monitoring flights coming up this July.
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| Jacksonville Zoo’s Donna Bear releases Swallow-tailed Kite JAX, who now carries a GSM/GPS transmitter. |
ARCI had not tagged a Swallow-tailed Kite in the Jacksonville area since 2012 (the last kite was Pace, tracked from 2012-2016), so we were unaware of any current nesting areas where kites could be found reliably. That was not a problem for the staff at Jacksonville Zoo, who led us to a perfect Swallow-tailed Kite nest site in northern Duval County, Florida.
With hard work and a bit of luck, ARCI’s Ken Meyer and Gina Kent, accompanied by Jacksonville Zoo’s Donna Bear, successfully outfitted a healthy Swallow-tailed Kite, nicknamed JAX, with a GSM/GPS transmitter. JAX, short for Jacksonville, is the sole representative for North Florida in our tracking program, and we hope to follow its success for years to come. JAX remains in Duval County, Florida for now.
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| ARCI’s Ken Meyer and Gina Kent agree on the placement of the transmitter. A falconer’s hood is placed on the kite’s head to keep the bird calm during the tagging process. |
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