Red Kite

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Red Kite
Conservation status
Near Threatened
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Subphylum: Vertebrata Class: Aves Order: Falconiformes Family: Accipitridae Subfamily: Milvinae Genus: Milvus Species: M. milvus
Binomial name
Milvus milvus (Linnaeus, 1758)

The Red Kite (Milvus milvus) is a medium-large bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as eagles, buzzards and harriers. The species is endemic to the Western Palearctic region. It is a rare species which is resident in the milder parts of its range, but birds from northern and central Europe winter further south and west.

Contents 1 Physical characteristics and behaviour 1.1 Morphological differences between adults and juveniles 2 Distribution 3 Populations and trends 4 Systematics 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Physical characteristics and behaviour

The Red Kite is 61–72 centimetre (24–28 in) long with a 175–200 cm (69–79 in) wingspan. It is an elegant bird, soaring with long wings held at a dihedral, 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. Sexes are similar, but juveniles have a buff breast and belly. The call is a thin piping, similar to but less mewling than Common Buzzard. The species nests in trees, often close to other kites; in winter, many kites will roost together.

At signs of danger a mother 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.

[edit] Morphological differences between adults and juveniles

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.

[edit] Distribution

In the Middle Ages, Red Kites were much more widespread, their scavenging habits making them the refuse collectors of the day, but their numbers have much decreased through illegal persecution and poisoning. Rumours spread amongst the farming community that they were capable of killing sheep, as they were often found scavenging off animal carcasses. In reality, they will only take small live prey as well as carrion, and will rob other birds. Their scavenging nature makes them particularly vulnerable to accidental secondary poisoning, where they scavenge the carcass of an animal that has been poisoned and succumb to the poison themselves.

In the United Kingdom, the breeding population eventually became restricted to a handful of pairs in Wales,^[1] but recently the Welsh population has been supplemented by re-introductions in England and Scotland. In 1989 six Swedish birds were released at a site in north Scotland and four Swedish and one Welsh bird in Buckinghamshire. 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 over from Germany to populate the areas of Dumfries and Galloway, and the Derwent Valley.

The reintroductions in The Chilterns have been a particular success, with a now well-established strong population across Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. The Kites are a common sight above the houses of the Buckinghamshire village of Stokenchurch, the Oxfordshire town of Wallingford and their surrounding areas. Sightings are common along the M40 between Oxford and Wycombe, all the way down to Reading and Newbury on the M4. In June 2006, the UK-based Northern Kites Project reported that kites have bred in the Derwent Valley for the first time since the re-introduction.^[2]

One of the best places to see the Red Kite is Skåne in southern Sweden. It may be observed in one of its breeding locations such as the Kullaberg Nature Preserve near Molle (Hogan 2005). One of the best places to see them in the UK is Gigrin Farm near Rhayader, mid Wales, where hundreds are fed by the local farmer as a tourist attraction.^[3] See also Red Kite feeding in Wales.

[edit] Populations and trends

According to a report by the Welsh Kite Trust,^[4] the UK is the only country in which the Red Kite population is increasing. Red Kites are decreasing in their three strongholds—Spain, France and Germany; and population increases have stagnated in Sweden and Switzerland.

The following figures (mostly estimates) have been collated from various sources^[5] over the past 10 years or so. They cover most of the countries in which Red Kites are believed to have bred.

Country	Year	Pairs	Trend
Iceland		0	0
Norway	1980	0	0
Sweden	2000s	1000	+
Denmark	2004	24	+
Scotland	2005	65	+
Ireland	2000	1
Wales	2006	400–450	+
England	2006	388+	+
France	ca.1995	2250–4200	0–
Netherlands	ca.1998	<5	+
Belgium	ca.1995	50–60	+
Luxembourg	1997	46	+
Germany	1999	9000–12000	–
Poland	ca.1998	650-700	+
Lithuania	1988	1–2	?
Latvia	1992	0–50	+?
Moldova	1990	1	?
Estonia	1989	<1	?
Russia	1992	0–50	?
Belarus	1997	1	+/–
Ukraine	1990	5–8	–
Czech Republic	1993–94	30–50	+
Slovakia	1992	10–20	?–
Switzerland	ca.1995	800–1000	+
Austria	2000	0–2	–
Hungary	ca.1998	1+	?
Romania	1995	15–20	?+
Bulgaria		0	?
Croatia		0	?
Bosnia and Herzegovina		0	?
Yugoslavia		0	?
Montenegro	1995	0	?
Serbia			?
Republic of Macedonia		0	?
Italy	ca.2002	300–400	0+
Albania			?
Greece		0	?
Turkey		0	?
Israel		0	0
Algeria		0	?
Tunisia		0	?
Malta		0	?
Spain	1994	3328–4044	–
Portugal	ca.1995	100–200	+0
Morocco	ca.1992	10–100	?–
Canary Islands		0	0
Cape Verde	2000	1?	–

[edit] Systematics

The Red Kite has been known to successfully hybridize with the Black Kite in captivity where both species were kept together, and in the wild on the Cape Verde Islands.

The Red Kites on the Cape Verde Islands are (or rather were) quite distinct in morphology, being somewhat intermediate with Black Kites. The question whether the Cape Verde Kite should be considered a distinct species (Milvus fasciicauda) or a Red Kite subspecies was never really settled. A recent mtDNA study^[6] on museum specimens suggests that Cape Verde birds did not form a monophyletic lineage among or next to Red Kites.

However, this interpretation is problematic: mtDNA analysis is very susceptible to hybridization events, the evolutionary history of the Cape Verde population is not known, and the genetic relationship of Red Kites in general is very confusing, with geographical proximity being no indicator of genetic relatedness and the overall genetic similarity high,^[7] perhaps indicating a relict species.

Given the morphological distinctness of the Cape Verde birds and the fact that the Cape Verde population was isolated from other populations of Red Kites, it cannot be conclusively resolved at this time whether the Cape Verde population wasn't a distinct subspecies (as M. migrans fasciicauda) or even species that frequently absorbed stragglers from the migrating European populations into its gene pool. More research seems warranted, but at any rate the Cape Verde population is effectively extinct since 2000, all surviving birds being hybrids with Black Kites (which merely raises further questions about their taxonomic status).

[edit] See also

• Black Kite

[edit] References

General references

• BirdLife International (2006). Milvus milvus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 20 Dec 2006. Database entry includes a lengthy justification of why this species is near threatened
• Crochet, Pierre-André (2005): Recent DNA studies of kites. Birding World 18(12): 486-488. HTML section list
• Hogan, C. Michael (2005): Kullaberg Nature Reserve, Sweden. Lumina technologies.

[edit] External links

• ARKive - images and movies of the red kite (Milvus milvus)
• The Welsh Kite Trust - includes UK breeding reports