In the last 40 years the species has only been observed a handful of times with the latest published sighting in 2010 in Alejandro de Humboldt National Park.

[2] A molecular phylogenetics analysis using mitochondrial DNA suggests that it warrants species status having diverged from the mainland lineage approximately 400,000 to 1.5 million years ago.

[3] Forest destruction and degradation is the leading cause of population decline, as well as the reduction in prey snail numbers and persecution by local farmers.

Females resemble the Grenada form of hook-billed kite, but the brown barring on the underparts is less rufescent.

[5] Cuban kites feed on colored tree snails and slugs, which they find in the forest undergrowth, for which the deeply hooked bill is thought to be adapted for.