Although they’re big birds they weigh less than a bag of sugar and they are too weak footed to catch anything other than a small rabbit. The reality is that red kites are predominantly carrion feeders – they feed mostly on dead animals. People saw them feeding on dead lambs and pheasants and mistakenly thought the kites had killed them. This made headlines, but this is not the natural behaviour of these birds – like seagulls they only gain such boldness when people feed them.įrom Victorian times onwards red kites were persecuted almost to the point of extinction due to misconceptions about their behaviour. In Marlow in 2019 a mother described a quick-thinking red kite swooping to steal sandwiches out of her two young children’s hands, leaving one child with a scratch on its head. People were encouraged to feed them during their reintroduction in the 1990s, but now that this species is doing well, feeding is no longer necessary. Red kites can feed and thrive successfully in their natural habitat without our assistance.This disrupts their natural population spread. Feeding discourages red kites from expanding their range and looking for new breeding territories and sources of food.Red kites can drop scraps of meat onto neighbouring gardens and properties which is a health risk and attracts rats and vermin (the Conservation Board has even received complaints about scraps of meat dropping directly onto people’s heads!).The scraps of uncooked and cooked meat that people feed red kites don’t present a balanced, healthy diet.This discourages songbirds and ground nesting birds from feeding and successfully bringing up their young. Feeding encourages concentrated numbers of kites in one area.If the birds become a nuisance this could change public support for the welfare of these birds, perhaps leading us back down the road towards the persecution of red kites – part of the worrying history of these birds. They have sharp claws and a wingspan of around six foot. Feeding encourages red kites to become bolder than they naturally would be and to fly too close for comfort.While this is an impressive spectacle, The Chilterns Conservation Board discourages feeding red kites. Some people like to feed red kites meat in their gardens to attract large numbers – the birds make dramatic swoops to feed. They’re a marvel to see circling overhead. In a second stage of reintroduction in 19, further birds were brought over from Germany to populate the areas of Dumfries and Galloway and the Derwent Valley.If you live in or near the Chilterns, you’ll know that red kites are one of Britain’s most magnificent and distinctive birds of prey, with fanned forked tails, a reddish-brown body and a distinctive mewing call. However, recently, the Welsh population has been supplemented by re-introductions in England and Scotland. In the United Kingdom, the breeding population eventually became restricted to a handful of pairs in Wales. These differences hold throughout most of the first year of a birds life. 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. Juveniles have a less deeply-forked tail, with a dark sub terminal band. Adults have black breast-streaks whereas on juveniles these are pale. At signs of danger, a mother Red Kite will signal the young who will ‘play dead’ to the extent that a fox will believe them to be dead and leave them, thinking it can return to eat them later.Īdult Red Kite birds differ from juvenile Red Kite birds in a number of characteristics: Adults are overall more deeply brownish red, compared with the more washed out color of juveniles. The Red Kite bird call is a thin piping, similar to but less mewling than the Common Buzzard. Male and female are similar, however, juveniles have a brownish yellow breast and belly. The white primary flight feathers contrast with the black wing tips and dark secondary feathers. Their body, upper tail and wing coverts are tinged with red. The Red Kite bird is an elegant bird which soars with long wings held at a dihedral (upward angle from horizontal in a fixed-wing aircraft or bird wing from root to tip), and long forked tail twisting as it changes direction. ![]() The Red Kite is 61 – 72 centimetres (24 – 28 inches) long with a 175 – 200 centimetres (69 – 79 inches) wingspan. It is a rare species which is resident in the milder parts of its range, however, birds from northern and central Europe winter further south and west. ![]() The Red Kite is endemic to the Western Palearctic region. The Red Kite bird (Milvus milvus) is a medium to large bird of prey which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as eagles, buzzards and harriers.
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