Hibbard told me that on one occasion when he had caught a number of
cicadas, he fed them to a pair of kites by tossing them into the air
one by one, and each was seized by a kite which was flying nearby
waiting expectantly.

Mississippi kites are noted for their buoyant and seemingly almost
effortless flight, and their prey is caught while they are on the
wing. In extended flights the kites soar, drift and circle with
frequent easy flapping, at variable heights. Sometimes they are
several hundred feet above the ground. Doubtless the height is
influenced by the types of insects that are flying, and where they can
be found most readily. Even at close range the catching of prey by a
kite is likely to be overlooked by an observer. After being snatched
from the air, the prey is usually eaten while the kite is still in
flight, and the movements of the head in pecking at the objects held
in the talons are much more noticeable than the slight veering from
the course of flight that signals the actual capture. Kites were often
watched while they were hunting in the open areas around the Park. On
June 1, 1961, my son and I observed 16 perched together in a small
tree. From time to time each kite would leave the tree in a short
flight low over the surface of a nearby pool, where it would snatch up
prey, probably a dragonfly in many instances, and would return to a
perch to feed. Most of the time one or several kites were in flight
while the majority were perched. Similar observations were made on
smaller groups perched on fence posts along the edges of large
pastures. Gregarious tendencies were evident from the fact that two or
more of the kites perched fairly near together on separate but
sometimes adjacent fence posts. Each kite in turn would glide from its
post, skim low over the ground surface for a few seconds, seize its
prey with a sudden slight swerving, and return to the fence (usually
to a different post from the one it had left) to feed upon the insect
captured. Grasshoppers of many species were abundant in the area. It
seemed that grasshoppers were flushed from the ground by the bird
flying near them and were picked off before they were well underway.
In any case the prey was taken from the air rather than from the
ground in all observed instances. Ganier (1902:86) mentioned seeing
one of these kites alight on the ground in a cotton field, where it
stayed for more than a minute, but perching on the ground is unusual.