They have an average lifespan of 8 years. Because of the reduced amount of predators in urban areas, Mississippi kites produce more offspring in urban areas than rural areas. Clutches fall victim to storms and predators such as raccoons and great horned owls. Only about half of kites successfully raise their young. The young birds leave the nest another 30 to 35 days after hatching. They have one clutch a year which takes 30 to 32 days to hatch. Mississippi kites nest in colonies and both parents (paired up before arriving at the nesting site) incubate the eggs and care for the young. In the past 75 years, they have undergone changes in nesting habitat from use of forest and savanna to include shelterbelts and are now very common nesters in urban area that are highly populated in the western south-central states. Mississippi kites usually lay two white eggs (rarely one or three) in twig nests that rest in a variety of deciduous trees. They migrate to southern subtropical South America in the winter. Breeding territory has expanded in recent years and Mississippi kites have been regularly recorded in the southern New England states and a pair has successfully raised young as far north as Newmarket, New Hampshire. Mississippi kites breed across the central and southern United States.
They have also been known to eat small vertebrates, including birds, amphibians, reptiles, and small mammals.
They eat cicada, grasshoppers, and other crop-damaging insects, making them economically important. Their diet consists mostly of insects which they capture in flight. A Mississippi kite looks at a bee caught in midair
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