Nottingham RSPB
local group

Bird of the month

Red Kite (Milvus milvus)

The Red Kite was numerous in Britain in times past, it was welcomed by city dwellers as it scavenged amongst the street rubbish and therefore helped keep disease down. In the countryside it was not so welcome as it was considered a threat to livestock and game

From Tudor times onwards it has been persecuted and bounties were once offered for each Kite head.

By the end of the 19th Century it was extinct in England and Scotland, with just a few pairs left in Wales. The Welsh population has been increasing but the rate of that increase has been slow, mainly due to poor breeding success and birds eating poisoned baits put out for Foxes and Crows.

The U.K. Red Kite Project Team was set up in the late 1980's by the RSPB and the nature Conservancy Council, they decided on an experimental re-introduction into England and Scotland, as at this point in time the Red Kite was considered a globally threatened species. They used nestlings from healthy populations as the source of the re-introduction, these came mainly from southern Sweden and northern/central Spain. The release sites were chosen for their suitability, allowing the birds to hunt and scavenge over low open ground, while nesting in woodland, therefore mixed habitats were required.

4 to 6 week old nestlings were transported to the release areas and then kept in specially designed wooden aviaries for at least the next 35 days (a quarantine period). They were fed daily on local Rabbit, Grey Squirrel, Fox, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Rook, Jay and Salmon! While human contact was kept to a minimum.

The Kites were then released when they were 12 weeks old in batches of 3 to 10 individuals. Food was provided for the first few weeks. Each bird was fitted with a unique wing tag, and birds released between 1989 - 1993 also had a tail mounted radio transmitter effective up to 40 kms away. These would last 12 months until the tail feathers were moulted. By 1994, 186 birds had been released, 93 in England and 93 in Scotland. Scottish birds have been recorded in Orkney, Cornwall and the Republic of Ireland, while one English bird was recorded in northern France. In 1992, 4 pairs of released birds raised 9 young in England and 1 pair 1 young in Scotland. Since the project began at least 113 young have fledged in England and 42 in Scotland (1994/5 figures, it more now!) . Survival rate is good but at least 6 have been killed by poisoning and at least 2 shot. It has been decided that more populations are needed and a target of 5 expanding populations by the year 2000, with at least 350 breeding pairs in the U.K. A new release site in the Midlands was started in 1995 using birds from central Spain. 11 were released in July and August '95 with 80 more planned over the next 4 years.

Help for the project came from British Airways and the RAF and also from Forest enterprise and Conoco.