Swallow-tailed Kites typically lay two, rarely three, eggs. They almost never fledge but one young bird. On the river we often see them take frogs and lizards, so we tend to think of such animals as their primary prey. In fact, both adults and recently fledged young feed primarily on flying insects. They are especially adapted predators of wasps and other biting, stinging invertebrates.
Kites have the thickest, most spongy stomach linings of any raptor.
They have been found with stomachs full of dangerous wasps and even fire ants, the latter possibly gleaned as one of the floating masses which fire ant colonies form when their nests are flooded out. They also snatch wasp s nests, eat the larvae, and weave the wasp s nests into their own. The reason we so often see them with small vertebrates is that these are the foods provided to nestlings. The birds are quite social. They do defend a 50-100 meter radius around nests with young, but they can often be seen hunting in groups.