Apple Snails, mollusks native to lakes in Florida, are the preferred diet of Florida’s endangered Snail Kites. Once the Kite extracts the snail from its shell with its perfectly curved beak, the shell is discarded to drop onto the dense floating island beneath the perch. The Kite will devour its meal in a couple of gulps. After seeing what the snail looks like without its shell, I had to grimace but kept shooting in fascination. However, I do not consider this “escargot” a delicacy but since its the primary diet of the Snail Kite, he obviously has no issues eating snails. We watched this bird find and consume three or four snails within an hour or so. Then, it didn’t seem to want to eat anymore. Garlic butter, anyone?