The snail kite (Rostrhamus sociabilis) is a bird of prey within the family Accipitridae, which also includes the eagles, hawks, and Old World vultures.

Lerner and Mindell (2005) found R. sociabilis sister to Geranospiza caerulescens, and that those two along with Ictinea plumbea were basal to both the Buteogallus and Buteo clades.

[6] The snail kite breeds in tropical South America, the Caribbean, and central and southern Florida in the United States.

It is resident all-year round in most of its range, but the southernmost population migrates north in winter and the Caribbean birds disperse widely outside the breeding season.

The snail kite is a locally endangered species in the Florida Everglades, with a population of less than 400 breeding pairs.

Since then, it has been regularly sighted, including immature birds, suggesting a resident breeding population might already exist in that country.

Everglades conservation efforts over the course of 30 years and costing over US$20 billion also contributed to restoring native vegetation of the snail kites' habitats and flow of water in marshes.

[11][12][13] Snail kites have been observed eating other prey items in Florida, including other freshwater snail species (such as the banded mystery snail), crayfish in the genus Procambarus, crabs in the genera Dilocarcinus and Poppiana (P. dentata), black crappie, ring-necked snakes, small turtles (including the common musk turtle, striped mud turtle, coastal plain cooter, Florida red-bellied cooter, Florida softshell turtle, and other unidentified species), rodents and carcasses (based only on a single reported case of a dead American coot).

On 14 May 2007, a birder photographed a snail kite feeding at a red swamp crayfish farm in Clarendon County, South Carolina.