It is now estimated that, following reintroductions, the UK holds between 7 and 10% of the world Red Kite population.

The Red Kite - Milvus milvus - is a medium-large bird of prey. The species is currently endemic to the Western Palearctic region in Europe and North West Africa.

Description

The Red Kite males are smaller than the females. It is an elegant bird, soaring with long wings and long forked tail twisting as it changes direction. The body, upper tail and wing coverts are rufous. The white primary flight feathers contrast with the black wing tips and dark secondaries. The sexes are similar, but juveniles have a buff breast and belly.

Call

The call is a thin piping, similar to but less mewling than the Common Buzzard.

Food

Food consists mainly of small mammals such as mice, voles, shrews, young hares and rabbits. It also feeds on a wide variety of carrion including sheep carcasses and dead game birds. Live birds are also taken and occasionally reptiles and amphibians. Earthworms also form an important part of the diet, especially in the spring.

Breeding

Adult red kites are sedentary birds, and they occupy their breeding home range all year in the United Kingdom. Both birds build the nest on a main fork or a limb high in a tree, 12-20m high made of dead twigs and lined with grass or other vegetation and sheep’s wool. Red Kites usually breed for the first time at 2 or 3 years old and they usually pair for life. Between one and four eggs are usually laid, two being by far the most usual number. Incubation is carried out by the female, who is fed at the nest by the male. Males will incubate for very short periods (usually less than 30 minutes) while the female goes off to feed, hunt or preen. Each egg will hatch between 31 and 35 days after incubation, resulting in chicks hatching at two or three day intervals. Because of this, sibling aggression is common and the larger chick will peck vigorously at its younger nest-mates if they attempt to get food before it has had its fill. In nests where food is in short supply the size difference between the chicks will increase with the smaller one(s) ultimately dying of starvation or being killed by the larger chick(s). The young birds fledge in about six to seven weeks and will remain with their parents for a further week to 10 days.

Conservation Status –Near Threatened

Birdwatching

In the United Kingdom, populations of red kites now occur in the Chilterns, mid Wales, north Scotland, central Scotland, east Midlands and Yorkshire. All these populations except the one in Wales, are the result of re-introduction.