Red Kite (Milvus milvus)

The Red Kite is a master of the air, so much so that the children’s toy that flies on the end of a string is named after it. The bird is not particularly powerful or fast, but it simply rides the wind with extreme elegance and consummate ease. It can turn sharply with a mere twitch of its tail in flight, and describe tight circles low over the ground without a wing-beat. It can make daring accelerations one moment, and then glide so slowly as almost to stall to a hover the next. Few birds of prey are so buoyant and agile, and few, too, are so distinctive to look at. The long, narrow wings, held pressed forward make a distinctive kink, and the long, sharply forked tail trails behind unmistakably.

By Noel Reynolds – Red Kite (Milvus milvus), CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20461516

The Red Kite has quite a restricted world range, being almost confined to Europe; it appears not to compete well with the ultra-aggressive, highly adaptable and more sociable Black Kite. However, it does reach cooler and windier climates than the Black Kite, remaining in some temperate areas throughout the year. Ideally, it favours rolling country with open areas and small woods and copses intermixed.

By Frank Vassen from Brussels, Belgium – Rotmilane, Meyerode, Ostbelgien, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31698824

Although Red Kites are probably best known as scavengers, easily seen near rubbish tips and abattoirs and often disturbed from road-kills and the corpses of sheep, they are also highly predatory, catching and eating large numbers of small mammals and birds. They catch far more live food than the Black Kite, especially in spring and summer. When hunting they tend to strike from a high soaring position, making a rapid feet-first plunge down to the ground. Their aim is to take the prey by surprise; if they are seen approaching, they usually miss.

Breeding birds build a stick nest high in a tree, and furnish it with all sorts of rubbish, including rags, paper, plastic, dung, sheep’s wool and any kind of refuse. Sites are usually traditional, and may be used by many pairs for successive generations.

From ‘Birds: A Complete Guide to All British and European Species’, by Dominic Couzens. Published by Collins and reproduced with permission.