The bird of prey Rufous-thighed Kite is a rather small, grayish kite of eastern South America. The adult has gray plumage on the ventral part and dark gray on the back, with orange shorts and a tail with three gray bars. Rufousthighed is relatively poorly known, but apparently feeds on insects and likely also on mall reptiles, sometimes attending army ant swarms. It occurs in tall lowland forest from the Guianas south to Bolivia, Paraguay, and northern Argentina, but knowledge of its seasonal distribution has been clouded by confusion with similar species; now it is known to be highly migratory, breeding only in the Atlantic Forest region of southeastern Brazil and adjacent Paraguay and Argentina, and migrating north to Amazonia and the Guianas.
