Snail kites are one of Southwest Florida's iconic species, says avid birder, Fort Myers pediatrician Jose Padilla-Lopez. "Beautiful red eyes, bright orange legs and very sharp curved beak.

The population of an endangered bird, the Everglade snail kite, has rebounded recently. Scientists it's all thanks to an invasive snail that has provided kites with a new abundant food source.

The Everglades snail kite, a raptor with red eyes and a knife-sharp beak, was sinking into oblivion a decade ago, its graceful arc on mottled wings fading from Florida skies forever. As humans wa… ...

Flying kites is a fascination for a Bowmanstown man, who lost count – at 43 – of the number he has. Three years ago, David L. Musselman renewed a childhood captivation for kites, but he went ...

Perhaps most importantly, snail kites readily devour them. Since the exotic snails became prevalent, the kite population has climbed to over 1,700 birds as of 2014.

From voracious giant African snails to competitive exotic apple snails, ... The kite uses its unique hook-shaped beak to pry open snail shells, ...

He shows off exotic kites and other flying objects and afterward, the kids make their own kites. The program can even be adjusted for adults or kindergarteners. Those programs last about two or so ...

And since snail kites relied on them as their sole food source, their numbers plunged from more than 3,000 birds in the late '90s to approximately 700 in 2009, according to a 2022 report by the ...

DECATUR — It’s not everyday you see a 33-foot-long great white shark or a 90-foot purple octopus swimming and floating through the skies above Decatur. These exotic kites were joined Sunday by ...

With the market being flooded with exotic kites from China, more than 50 per cent of local manufacturers here have been forced to shut shop this year. Their traditional paper `gliders', ...