On 4 May Texan David Hanson photographed a bird that shows the field marks of the tropical species, Double-toothed Kite (Harpagus bidentatus), at High Island on the Houston Audubon Society property, Boy Scout Woods. Because of the bird’s flight pattern, David assumed it was a Cooper’s Hawk until another birder corrected his I.D. To view a photograph see:
http://vireo.ansp.org/advsearch.html?target=h52-1-001&mode=single&offset=2&count=7
A larger image can be seen by using the e-mail
vireo AT ansp.org and the password idhelp9
The shape of the cutting edge of the upper mandible gives this species its name. In the tropics, Double-toothed Kites frequently follow monkey troops, swarming army ants, and bird flocks to take advantage of potential prey items they disturb, especially lizards and large insects (Birds of Northern South America, An Identification Guide, Volume 1, Restall et al.).
The northern subspecies, H.b.fasciatus, occurs north to the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi, south to western Colombia and Ecuador, whereas the southern subspecies, H.b.bidentatus, is found from eastern Columbia and Ecuador through Amazonia to southeastern Brazil (Clements Checklist of the Birds of the World, Sixth Edition).
This species has NOT been recorded before from the ABA Area. John Arvin, former professional bird guide specializing in Latin American and current research associate of the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory commented on TXBirds… “nor is it [Double-toothed Kite] known to be prone to any vagrancy within the neotropics. It is a humid evergreen forest species…and is not found in the lighter tropical deciduous habitats that characterize most of the eastern Sierra Madre Oriental north of southern Veracruz.”
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