Red Kite feeding in Wales

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Red Kites in some parts of Wales are regularly fed by humans. This has a dual purpose: it is intended to help sustain and increase the kite population through the provision of extra food, and it also acts as a tourism draw.

Locations at which this takes place include:

• The Black Mountain Feeding Station at Llanddeusant in the Brecon Beacons, which is visited daily by over 50 birds.

• Gigrin Farm, near Rhayader where between 200 and 400 kites visit per day.

• Nant-yr-Arian, a forestry commission center near Ponterwyd, Ceredigion, where over 30 kites feed every day.

At all three of these sites, birds are fed daily.

Debate has taken place over the effectiveness of kite-feeding as a conservation method. Practitioners of kite-feeding argue that it has helped to increase the species' population, and sustain the birds through poor winters. It has also been suggested that the practice of feeding kites has hampered their spread out of central Wales into other parts of the United Kingdom.