The red kite is a colourful bird of prey, known for its elegance both in flight and at rest. It soars effortlessly in wide circles high in the sky, using slow, steady wingbeats and its distinctive forked tail for precise steering. Once reduced to just a handful of individuals in Wales, the species was brought back from the brink of extinction in the UK thanks to a long-running conservation programme. It has since been successfully reintroduced to parts of England and Scotland. However, red kites remain vulnerable, particularly to poisoned bait intended for foxes, rats, and crows.
Breeding birds: 1,600 pairs
Family: Hawks, Eagles, And Kites
The adult red kite has rich reddish-brown upperparts, marked with a darker, scaled pattern across the back. Its underparts are also reddish-brown, streaked with black on the breast and belly. In flight, the long, broad wings reveal a conspicuous white patch beneath, along with black wingtips. The tail, also reddish-brown, is deeply forked. The head and throat are pale grey, streaked with darker lines.
It has a hooked yellow bill with a dark tip, amber eyes surrounded by a yellow eye-ring, and yellow legs and feet. Males and females look similar, though females tend to be slightly paler.
Juvenile red kites appear less bright overall, and have pale streaks across the breast. The tail is less forked, with a dark subterminal band, and the greater coverts have pale tips.
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Red kites breed between March and May and produce 1 brood per season. They are monogamous and often pair for life.
They build their nests in trees in coniferous forests, sometimes using abandoned crows’ or buzzards’ nests, and often use the same nesting site each year. Males bring twigs which are used by the female to build the nest, which is lined with dry grasses and sheep’s wool, and it may be ‘decorated’ with rubbish and man-made materials such as plastic, paper, or cloth.
Red kites lay 1-4 glossy white eggs with reddish-brown speckles, which are incubated mainly by the female for around 30 days. During this period she is fed by the male. Chicks are covered in cream coloured down with a pale brown back. They embark on their first flight at about 50 days after hatching but rely on their parents for a further 40 days. Although they reach sexual maturity at 2 years they will not usually breed for a few more years, and if they reach maturity can live up to 25 years in the wild.
Red kites have a varied diet that includes small mammals such as mice, shrews, weasels, voles and young rabbits and hares, birds including magpies and pigeons as well as frogs, lizards and fish. In spring earthworms are an important part of their diet. As scavengers, red kites are particularly susceptible to poisoning both from illegal direct poisoning and poisoning from pesticides.
In the UK, red kites used to be confined to Wales but a reintroduction programme has brought them back to many parts of England and Scotland.
They can be seen all year round in open forests, woodlands, and thickets.
In the Middle Ages red kites were used to keep the streets clean and they were protected by a royal decree which meant it was a capital offence to kill a red kite.
