Red kite

Adults differ from juveniles in a number of characteristics:

• Adults are overall more deeply rufous, compared with the more washed out colour of juveniles;
• Adults have black breast-streaks whereas on juveniles these are pale;
• Juveniles have a less deeply forked tail, with a dark subterminal band;
• Juveniles have pale tips to all of the greater-coverts (secondary and primary) on both the upper- and under-wings, forming a long narrow pale line; adults have pale fringes to upperwing secondary-coverts only.

These differences hold throughout most of the first year of a bird's life.

Eggs in the natural history collection of the Museum Wiesbaden, Germany

Juveniles at nest, Berlin

Usually red kites first breed when they are two years old, although exceptionally they can successfully breed when they are only one year old.[16][17][18] They are monogamous and the pair-bond in resident populations is probably maintained during the winter, particularly when the pair remain on their breeding territory. For migrant populations the fidelity to a particular nesting site means that the pair-bond is likely to be renewed each breeding season.[19] The nest is normally placed in a fork of a large hardwood tree at a height of between 12 and 15 m (39 and 49 ft) above the ground. A pair will sometimes use a nest from the previous year and can occasionally occupy an old nest of the common buzzard.[20] The nest is built by both sexes. The male brings dead twigs 30–50 cm (12–20 in) in length which are placed by the female. The nest is lined with grass and sometimes also with sheep's wool. Unlike the black kite, no greenery is added to the nest. Both sexes continue to add material to the nest during the incubation and nestling periods. Nests vary greatly in size and can become large when the same nest is occupied for several seasons.[16]

The eggs are laid at three-day intervals. The clutch is usually between one and three eggs but four and even five eggs have occasionally been recorded. The eggs are non-glossy with a white ground and red-brown spots. The average size is 57 mm × 45 mm (2.2 in × 1.8 in) with a calculated weight of 63 g (2.2 oz).[16] In Britain and central Europe, laying begins at the end of March but in the Mediterranean area laying begins in early March.[20] The eggs are mainly incubated by the female, but the male will relieve her for short periods while she feeds. The male will also bring food for the female. Incubation starts as soon as the first egg is laid. Each egg hatches after 31 to 32 days but as they hatch asynchronously a clutch of three eggs requires 38 days of incubation. The chicks are cared for by both parents. The female broods them for the first 14 days while the male brings food to the nest which the female feeds to the chicks. Later both parents bring items of food which are placed in the nest to allow the chicks to feed themselves. The nestlings begin climbing onto branches around their nest from 45 days but they rarely fledge before 48–50 days and sometimes not until they are 60–70 days of age. The young spend a further 15–20 days in the neighbourhood of the nest being fed by their parents. Only a single brood is raised each year but if the eggs are lost the female will relay.[16]

The maximum age recorded is 25 years and 8 months for a ringed bird in Germany.[21] The BTO longevity record for Britain and Ireland is also 25 years and 8 months for a bird found dead in Buckinghamshire in 2018.[22] In 2023, one of the first red kites reintroduced to the UK was found injured in Oxfordshire and later died, aged 29.[23]

Side view of adult, Wales

The red kites are generalist scavengers and predators. Their diet consists mainly of carrions of large domestic animals such as sheep and pigs, roadkills, and shored fish.[24][25] They also take small mammals such as mice, voles, shrews, stoats, young hares and rabbits.[24][26][27] Live birds are also taken, especially young or wounded, such as crows, doves, starlings, thrushes, larks, gulls, and waterfowls.[24] Occasionally reptiles and amphibians are taken and invertebrates such as Earthworms form an important part of the diet, especially in spring.[28] In some parts of the United Kingdom, red kites are also deliberately fed in domestic gardens, explaining the presence of red kites in urban areas.[29] Here, up to 5% of householders have provided supplementary food for red kites, with chicken the predominant meat provided.[29][30]

As scavengers, red kites are particularly susceptible to poisoning. Illegal poison baits set for foxes or crows are indiscriminate and kill protected birds and other animals.[31] There have also been a number of incidents of red kites and other raptors being targeted by wildlife criminals.[32][33]

In the United Kingdom, there have been several unusual instances of red kites stealing food from people in a similar manner to gulls. One such occurrence took place in Marlow, Buckinghamshire (a town near a major reintroduction site for the species in the UK in the nearby village of Stokenchurch), in which Red Kites swooped down to steal sandwiches from people in one of the town's parks.[34]

Nestling red kites, Barnim, Germany

German populations declined by 25%–30% between 1991 and 1997, but have remained stable since. The populations of the northern foothills of the Harz Mountains (the most densely populated part of its range) suffered an estimated 50% decline from 1991 to 2001. In Spain, the species showed an overall decline in breeding population of up to 43% for the period 1994 to 2001–02, and surveys of wintering birds in 2003–04 suggest a similarly large decline in core wintering areas. The Balearic Islands population has declined from 41 to 47 breeding pairs in 1993 to just 10 in 2003. In France, breeding populations have decreased in the northeast, but seem to be stable in southwest and central France and Corsica. Populations elsewhere are stable or undergoing increases. In Sweden, the species has increased from 30 to 50 pairs in the 1970s to 1,200 breeding pairs in 2003 and has continued growing. In Switzerland, populations have been increasing since the 1990s.[1] Red kites have declined in their traditional strongholds of Spain, France and Germany; while now stable in the last two countries, those populations remain well below their historical peaks.[1] In contrast, red kite populations are increasing in parts of northern Europe, such as Denmark, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.[1][36][37] The red kite is the official landscape bird of the Swedish province of Scania,[38] and depicted on the coat of arms of the municipality of Tomelilla.[39]

Red kite, Gigrin Farm, Wales

Red kites at the feeding station, Laurieston, Scotland.

In the United Kingdom, red kites were ubiquitous scavengers that lived on carrion and rubbish. Shakespeare's King Lear describes his daughter Goneril as a detested kite, and he wrote "when the kite builds, look to your lesser linen" in reference to them stealing washing hung out to dry in the nesting season.[40] In the mid-15th century, King James II of Scotland decreed that they should be "killed wherever possible", but they remained protected in England and Wales for the next 100 years as they kept the streets free of carrion and rotting food.[41] Under Tudor "vermin laws" many creatures were seen as competitors for the produce of the countryside and bounties were paid by the parish for their carcasses.[42]

By the 20th century, the breeding population was restricted to a handful of pairs in South Wales, but recently the Welsh population has been supplemented by re-introductions in England and Scotland. In 2004, from 375 occupied territories identified, at least 216 pairs were thought to have hatched eggs and 200 pairs reared at least 286 young.[1] In 1989, six Swedish birds were released at a site in north Scotland and four Swedish and one Welsh bird in Buckinghamshire.[43] Altogether, 93 birds of Swedish and Spanish origin were released at each of the sites. In the second stage of reintroduction in 1995 and 1996, further birds were brought from Germany to populate areas of Dumfries and Galloway. Between 2004 and 2006, 94 birds were brought from the Chilterns and introduced into the Derwent Valley in north East England.[43] In Northern Ireland, 80 birds from wild stock in Wales were released between 2008 and 2010, and the first successful breeding was recorded in 2010. The reintroductions in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty have been a success. Between 1989 and 1993, 90 birds were released there and by 2002, 139 pairs were breeding.[44] They can commonly be seen taking advantage of thermals from the M40 motorway.[45] Another successful reintroduction has been in Northamptonshire, which has become a stronghold for the red kite.[46] Thirty Spanish birds were introduced into Rockingham Forest near Corby in 2000,[47] and by 2010, the RSPB estimated that over 200 chicks had been reared from the initial release. So successful has the reintroduction been that 30 chicks have been transported from Rockingham Forest for release in Cumbria.[48] From the Chilterns they have spread as far east as Essex and can be seen over Harlow. By 2021 they had spread along the M4 as far as the Cotswold Edge overlooking the Severn near Bristol.

A sighting of the first red kite in London for 150 years was reported in The Independent newspaper in January 2006[49] and in June of that year, the UK-based Northern Kites Project reported that kites had bred in the Derwent Valley in and around Rowlands Gill, Tyne and Wear for the first time since the re-introduction.[50]

In 1999, the red kite was named 'Bird of the Century' by the British Trust for Ornithology.[40] According to the Welsh Kite Trust, it has been voted "Wales's favourite bird".[51]

In June 2010, the Forestry Commission North West England announced a three-year project to release 90 red kites in Grizedale Forest, Cumbria under a special licence issued by Natural England. The Grizedale programme was the ninth reintroduction of red kites into different regions of the UK and the final re-introduction phase in England.[52]

The stated aims of the Grizedale project were:

• To establish a viable population of red kites in Grizedale, South Cumbria by 2015.
• To increase the rate of red kite expansion into North West England and link up with existing populations in Wales, Yorkshire, North East England and South West Scotland and so increase the chances of a continuous geographical range.
• To develop community involvement and create educational opportunities arising from the project.[53]

As of July 2011, non-breeding birds are regularly seen in all parts of Britain, and the number of breeding pairs is too large for the RSPB to continue to survey them on an annual basis.[54]

Red kites were extinct in Ireland by the middle nineteenth century, due to persecution, poisoning and woodland clearance. In May 2007, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government Dick Roche announced an agreement to bring at least 100 birds from Wales to restock the population as part of a 5-year programme in the Wicklow Mountains, similar to the earlier golden eagle reintroduction programme.[55] On 19 July 2007, the first thirty red kites were released in County Wicklow.[56][57] On 22 May 2010, 2 newly hatched red kite chicks were discovered in the Wicklow mountains,[58] bringing the number of chicks hatched since reintroduction to 7.[59]

A young red kite in Cookham, Berkshire.

The following figures (mostly estimates) have been collated from various sources.[3][60][61][62][63][64][65] They cover most of the countries in which red kites are believed to have bred.

Country	Year	Pairs	Trend	Notes
Albania		0	Un­known	Bred 1906
Algeria		0		Bred in the 19th century, now extinct
Austria	2019	90–130		Extinct 1950, recolonised 1970s; 5–10 pairs in 2000 and since then rapidly increasing[66]
Belarus	1997	1	Un­known	Extinct 1950s, recolonised 1985; 10 pairs 1990
Belgium	2020	350–400		Declined to 1–2 known pairs in 1967, then recovery[1]
Bosnia and Herzegovina		0	Un­known
Bulgaria		0	Un­known	May breed but no proof
Canary Islands		0		Extinct 1970s
Cape Verde	2000	1?		50–75 pairs late 1980s; effectively extinct
Croatia		0	Un­known	2–5 pairs 1980s
Czech Republic	2013	165–185		Extinct late 19th century, recolonised 1975
Denmark	2021	300–350[67]		Extinct c.1920, then recolonised (from Germany/Sweden) 1970s. Slow increase up until the early 2000s (17 known pairs in 2001), since then rapidly increasing[1]
England	2011	c.2,000		Extinct 1870s, reintroduced 1989–1992, recovering
Estonia	1989	<1	Un­known
France	2018	3,000–3,900		Rapidly declined from the 1980s until around 2010, since then stable or perhaps increasing locally[1]
Germany	2018	14,000–16,000		15,000–25,000 pairs 1980s; declined up until around 2000, populations subsequently stabilised[1]
Greece		0
Hungary	c.1998	1+		30 pairs 1950s
Ireland	2010	7		First successful breeding reported in 2010 following reintroduction in 2007
Italy	c.2002	300–400		70–150 pairs late 1980s. Clear increase in the mainland in recent decades, but almost extirpated in Sicily[1]
Latvia	1992	0–50		Extinct 1964, then recolonised
Lithuania	1988	1–2		Extinct, then recolonised 1981
Luxembourg	2015	90
Moldova	1990	1	Un­known
Montenegro	1995	0	Un­known
Morocco	2020	0		Last breeding pair in 2004; rare winter visitor[1]
Netherlands	2018	15–20[68]		Extinct 1852, recolonised 1970s, but highly irregular until 2008, since then regular and increasing
Northern Ireland	2010	5		First successful breeding reported in 2010 following reintroduction in 2008
North Macedonia		0	Un­known
Norway	1980	0		Bred occasionally in the 19th century
Poland	2012	1,500–1,800[1]		400–450 pairs 1980s
Portugal	c.1995	100–200		Appears to have rapidly decreased in recent decades, but accurate data lacking[1]
Romania	1995	15–20	Un­known
Russia	1992	0–50	Un­known
Scotland	2009	135		Extinct 1886, reintroduced 1989–1992
Serbia			Un­known
Slovakia	1992	10–20	Un­known
Spain	2018	2,312–2,440		10,000 pairs 1977
Sweden	2020	1,900–2,200[69]		Increase from the low-point of 30–50 pairs in the 1970s[1]
Switzerland	2013–2016	2,800–3,500		Declined 19th century, later recovery; 235–300 pairs in the late 1980s, 800–1,000 pairs in 1995.
Tunisia		0		Bred in the 19th century, now extinct
Turkey		0	Un­known	May have bred in past but no firm evidence
Ukraine	1990	5–8
Wales	2009	c.1,000		Declined to 2 pairs in the 1930s, then recovery