Bald Eagle,Haliaeetus leucocephalus.
September 29 to April 20+. Regular transient winter resident seen primarily late November to mid-March. Poultry farmers at scattered locations have during the 1980s placed dead chickens from their barns in fields where carrion-feeding birds, including eagles, come to feed. There is one record from the Maysville area in Benton County of 115 on January 22, 1986, and 49 were near Durham in Washington County on January 2, 1986. Of 40 birds seen at Maysville on March 18, 1985, only 4 remained on March 25 (personal communication, D. James, J. Fitzgerald, C. Riley).
American Swallow-tailed Kite,Elanoides forficatus.
In his bird list for the Winslow area of Washington County, Smith (1915) stated the following: "The only record that I can recall during my stay in the mountains was that of a single bird, observed by a farmer near Winslow, on October 8, 1913. Old residents were well acquainted with it, and described it to me minutely..." Baerg (1951) received a report involving two birds seen in Newton County on July 10, 1949. There have been no records in the region since.
Mississippi Kite,Ictinia mississippiensis.
Baerg (1951) published two records of single birds seen by Dean Crooks at West Fork and Harrison, both in 1939. In 1985, a single bird was seen repeatedly along the White River near Durham, Washington County, from May 23 to early June, during a nearby emergence of periodical cicadas. One was seen near Centerton on May 10, 1988.