Milvus milvus           Family: Hawks and Eagles Present: all year Diet: Carrion and small rodents Breeding: 1600 pairs

The Red Kite renewed our interest in birds when we went to Rhayader in Mid Wales, they fly around like Sparrows up there.

This magnificently graceful bird of prey is unmistakable with its reddish-brown body, angled wings and deeply forked tail.
An agile long winged acrobatic bird of prey, the Red Kiteis exceptionally graceful in the air. It has a light buoyant flight style that has few equals apart from the Black Kite which we have also seen in France. The Red Kite being much more colourful than the Black Kite.

Distribution In the UK

The population that survived the persecution in the old oakwoods of mid-Wales has spread, and continues to go from strength to strength. In England the reintroduced birds can be found in the Buckinghamshire/Oxfordshire area, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Yorkshire, Gateshead, Northumberland and the Newcastle area and Grizedale Forest in Cumbria. The Scottish population is centred around the release sites in Dumfries and Galloway, Stirling-shire and west Perthshire, around Black Isle in Ross-shire, and on the outskirts of Aberdeen City. Kites have also now been returned to Northern Ireland.

Rhayader

The Red Kite in Rhayader mid Wales are so plentyful you can often see 20-30 of them in the sky above you. Gigrin Farm feeds them daily and one can see hundreds sitting in the trees at feeding time. Very few in Devon & Cornwall (2017)

TIP
From a distance the long narrow wings with distinct V in the tail seperate it from the Buzzard

For more information on this bird click here