Friends of the Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuges
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Swallow-tail kite seen flying from below

Swallow-tailed Kite Tracking

Friends of the Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys NWRs provides support for the Avian Research and Conservation Institute (ARCI) to track Swallow-tailed Kites on the Refuge and learn about their migration patterns. ARCI uses GPS-transmitters to track 11 Swallow-tailed Kites from breeding populations in Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana. Most of these Kites are carrying cell-phone technologies that upload their location data when they are able to connect with a cell-phone tower. Since the kites pass through many remote areas, opportunities to upload their locations are spotty. The good thing is that they store all their location data indefinitely, so when they do connect, the information comes streaming in.

The first Kite Friends supported in 2019 was dubbed 'Suwannee'. He is a male Swallow-tailed Kite and his transmitter tracked his migration from the Refuge to his wintering area in Brazil and back for about 3 years before the batteries in his transmitter started to fail.

Suwannee II was tagged in 2022 and is a female. She is wearing updated transmitter technology which will hopefully last longer. We look forward to following her journeys.

Dr. Ken Meyer, ARCI executive director, gave a fascinating talk about their work tracking raptors at the Friends 2020 annual meeting.
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ARCI Posts About Lower Suwannee Kites

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Audubon's Story of Suwannee with Real-time Tracking
​'The Secret Lives of Swallow-tailed Kites' 

 Friends Posts About ARCI Tracks

  • 9/14/22 Suwannee Calls Home
  • 8/24/22 Suwannee II is Female
  • 7/15/22 Suwannee II flies...north?
  • 3/11/22 Suwannee the Swallow-tailed Kite is Back
  • 8/5/21 Suwannee Prepares to Fly South
  • 4/28/21 Tracking Suwannee
  • 11/16/20 Our Kite, Suwannee, Appears After Long Silence
  • 10/3/20 Suwannee Update
  • 8/7/20 Suwannee's Long Migration Has Begun
  • 7/13/20 Where's Suwannee?
  • 5/25/20 Update on Suwannee and Other Feathered Friends
  • 9/14/19 Suwannee Arrived in Colombia
  • 8/28/19 Suwannee, the Swallow-tailed Kite, in the Press
  • 8/21/19 Tracking "Suwannee" the Swallow-tailed Kite
  • 8/16/19 Our Swallow-tailed Kite, Suwannee
  • 7/16/19 Swallow-tailed Kites Prepare to Migrate
  • 5/24/19 Swallow-tailed Kites on the Refuge
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Friends of the Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuges
P. O. Box 532
Cedar Key, FL 32625
friends@friendsofrefuges.org

We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.


  • Home
    • Current News
  • About
    • About Friends >
      • Who We Are
      • What We Do
      • Current News
      • Contact Us
    • About the Refuges >
      • Our Refuges
      • Places of Interest
      • Hunting Brochure
  • Join
    • Donate
  • Maps
    • Paddling Guides
    • Refuge Maps
    • Trail Brochures
    • Places of Interest
  • Wildlife
    • Science
  • Hunt & Fish
    • Hunting
    • FWS Hunting Brochure
    • Fishing
  • Search
  • Store
    • Shirts
    • Hats
    • Books
    • Earrings
    • Gift Donation
    • On Sale