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The animal on the cover of Spark: The Definitive Guide is the swallow-tailed kite (Elanoides forficatus). Found in woodland and wetland locations ranging from southern Brazil to the southeastern United States, these raptors subsist on small reptiles, ambhibians, and mammals, as well as large insects. They build their nests near water.
Swallow-tailed kites tend to be 20–27 inches in length, and coast through the air on wings spanning around 4 feet, using their sharply forked tails to steer. Their plumage grows in a strikingly contrasting black and white, and they spend most of their time in the air, even grazing the surface of bodies of water to drink rather than staying put on the ground.
Among the raptor species, Elanoides forficatus are social animals, and often nest in close proximity or roost for the night in large communal groups. During migration, they may travel in groups numbering in the hundreds or thousands.
Many of the animals on O’Reilly covers are endangered; all of them are important to the world. To learn more about how you can help, go to animals.oreilly.com.
The cover image is from Lydekker’s The Royal Natural History. The cover fonts are URW Typewriter and Guardian Sans. The text font is Adobe Minion Pro; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is Dalton Maag’s Ubuntu Mono.
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