Flying high like a kite Having been relentlessly persecuted and almost driven to extinction in the UK, it is a welcome and thrilling sight to see Red Kites soaring above the fields of Devon once more

Red Kite Revival

Helipad’s Armchair Twitcher gets off the sofa and turns his binoculars to the skies in the hope of spotting one of the UK’s greatest bird of prey success stories – the red kite

As a lover of garden birds, it may seem a strange paradox called a ‘City of Kites and Crows’. He also wrote “When the to also relish seeing raptors – birds of prey – in and kite builds, look to lesser linen”, a reference to the kite’s habit around the bird feeders and in the skies high above the of stealing clothes and bedding from washing lines to make garden. But there is something very primeval and thrilling in its nest (the kite’s nest is a messy aff air, an untidy mixture of seeing any bird of prey in its natural environment. sticks, twigs and mud, sometimes lined with sheep’s wool

Very occasionally, you may be lucky enough to observe and decorated with all manner of bits of cloth, paper and one of our most agile bird hunters – the sparrowhawk – in even plastic!). your garden. Targetting smaller birds around feeders is an Despite King James II of Scotland’s proclamation that kites important part of its hunting strategy and seeing this agile should be ‘killed wherever possible’, the birds did a valuable predator fl ying fast and straight like a bullet across the job in keeping the city streets clean of rotting food and carrion lawn, scattering the birds from the feeders, is a genuinely and received protection for upwards of 100 years. exhilarating experience for any avid bird watcher. However, the fortunes of the red kite swiftly declined in the

Although most hunts end in failure, I also had the privilege 18th century as it was relentlessly persecuted by landowners last summer to see one of these beautiful birds sitting on and gamekeepers who wrongly believed it was a threat to the lawn, an unfortunate dead pigeon grasped in its talons. their game birds and livestock. In fact, red kites are much Although distressing, prey is always dispatched quickly, and more likely to feast on carrion, beetles and earthworms, than this rare experience gives the bird watcher the chance to they are on lambs! As the bird became rarer, it also fell prey observe this magnifi cent to Victorian egg collectors, hunter close up. “ If you are very, very lucky, the holy grail who it is estimated robbed However, seeing most birds of prey in Devon is a of bird of prey spotting in the South West up to a quarter of all nests every year. more elusive experience. is the wonderful red kite. It is a real natural At the beginning of the Large raptors are nearly world success story, triumph over adversity 20th century, only a small always spotted soaring high in the sky, and the against a backdrop of persecution which handful of red kites could be found in rural mid-Wales. avid garden bird watcher is almost drove it to extinction ” Given its status at that usually only alerted to their time as one of only three presence by the squawking of seagulls and crows, who for globally threatened species in the UK, it was a high priority for once join forces to mob the predator away from their nests conservation. Between 1989 and 1994, 93 red kites, originating and territories. You may also hear their pleasant high pitched from Sweden and Spain, were released across England, Wales mewing call “wee-oo wee-oo”! and Scotland and their population and spread across the whole

If you are very, very lucky, the holy grail of bird of prey of the United Kingdom has increased ever since. spotting in the South West is the wonderful red kite. It is a real While it is hard to give an accurate estimation of the number natural world success story, triumph over adversity against a of birds now in our skies, the RSPB believes there are about backdrop of persecution which almost drove it to extinction 4,600 breeding pairs across the UK. When compared to the in the UK. Thanks to reintroduction programmes and legal 60,000-80,000 pairs of the more ubiquitous buzzard, it isn’t protection, the red kite is now re-establishing itself as one of hard to see why spotting one of these elusive creatures is such the country’s top avian predators, and sightings around the a treat for South West bird watchers. South West have steadily increased. So, the next time you spot a bird of prey, soaring high in

The red kite has always had a long association with humans, the sky above your garden, take a moment to see if it is the dating back to Medieval times and references can be found magnifi cent red kite. Despite persecution driving it to the sprinkled throughout historical records and literature. The bird brink of extinction, it is truly a majestic raptor and a true UK was a common site in Medieval London, which Shakespeare conservation success story. 

It’s all in the tail

– why telling the red kite from the buzzard is a matter of shape

Although quite distinctive on closer inspection, telling a red kite from a more common buzzard can be tricky, particularly at a long distance where their relative size and shape, reddish-brown body and fl ashes of white on the underside of their wings may not be visible. However, there is one very distinctive feature that makes it easy to tell these two large raptors apart, even at distance - the shape of the tail! Buzzards have a short rounded fan-shaped tail, and red kites have a distinctive, deeply forked tail.