in Ecuador. Behavior Movement The double-toothed kite is essentially sedentary, though at least one has wandered as far as Texas. Feeding The double-toothed kite primarily hunts from a perch in the forest interior. It dives to take prey; in one study about 2/3 of the captures were directly from vegetation, most of the rest in flight, and a small percentage from the ground. Its prey includes insects (such as butterflies, cicadas, grasshoppers, katydids, crickets, beetles, wasps, caterpillars, and cockroaches) and small vertebrates (mostly anoles and geckos but also iguanas, bats, birds, rodents, and snakes). Insects dominate in numbers but vertebrates in biomass. It regularly follows close behind troops of monkeys to catch prey flushed by them. Breeding The double-toothed kite's breeding season varies widely over its very large range but appears to generally be in the local spring and early summer. The species makes courtship display flights above the canopy; males also feed females during courtship and incubation. Females make a saucer nest of small twigs in a tree fork as high as above the ground, sometimes with help from the male. Nests are often at the edge of the forest. The typical clutch size is two eggs, which the female almost exclusively incubates. The incubation period is 42 to 45 days and fledging usually occurs 27 to 31 days after hatch. Young are independent by about two months after fledging. Vocalization The double-toothed kite makes high-pitched calls "'tsip-tsip-tsip-tsip-wheeeeeoooip', extended 'wheeeeoooo' or 'cheeeeee-it'" in nest defence or other agonistic encounters. Pairs make contact calls described as "whistled 'see-weeeeep' or 'chee-weet'". Young beg with a "chee-weet" call. Status The IUCN has assessed the double-toothed kite as being of Least Concern. It has an extremely large range and an estimated population of at least a half million mature individuals. No immediate threats have been identified. It is "[r]elatively common in appropriate habitat" but "will not persist in areas of extensive deforestation." References Harpagus (bird) Birds described in 1790 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot