White tailed kite...

Watching this raptor for the last week or so....
Yesterday morning got a good enough view to identify it as a white tail kite.

White Tailed Kite (not my photo)

Always fun to make a positive identification on a bird.  

Especially one seen for the first time.

From the Audubon Society:  The tame, elegant White-tailed Kite was formerly shot in large numbers by farmers who thought it threatened their chickens, although the birds feed almost entirely on insects and a few small rodents. The North American population was reduced to a pitiful remnant, and it was feared that the species might become extinct here. White-tailed Kites have since made a spectacular comeback in California and Texas and are now common in suitable lowland habitats. Like other kites, they are sociable outside the breeding season, congregating at roosts in groups of a dozen or more. They feed mainly on small rodents and insects, which they locate by hovering kestrel-like high in the air. These kites prefer to rest on treetops or other high lookouts.

(A very interesting piece on the Cornucopia site. Don't Ask How to Feed the 9 Billion....link at left.  Definitely worth reading to debunk Monsanto's claim that we need genetically modified crops and bundles of chemical pesticides in order to  end world hunger.)