Red Kite

Voice

A high, mewing series: weeoo-ee-ee-ee, hesitant and wavering in tone, often given over the breeding site. Less loud and penetrating than the Buzzard's mew.

Identification

Soaring on slightly raised, kinked wings with a constantly twisting, deeply forked tail. From below, large pale windows at the base of the primaries contrast with black wingtips. The head is pale grey to almost white, body and tail warm rufous. Flight is buoyant and rocking, with few wingbeats.

Confusion species

Black Kite: darker and browner, with a much shallower tail fork that looks nearly straight when spread, and without the striking pale hand windows. Buzzard: more compact, broad rounded wings, short rounded tail. At long range the tail fork remains the decisive feature.

Habitat

Small-scale farmland with copses, hedgebanks and grazed slopes — a landscape offering both nest trees and open hunting ground. Opportunistic: takes voles and young birds, but lives largely on carrion and readily follows ploughing tractors.

Range and movements

Core areas lie in Germany, France, Spain and Wales; the recovery in Britain after reintroduction ranks among Europe's most successful conservation projects. In the Netherlands an increasing migrant and, for some years now, a small and growing breeding population, mainly in the east and south.

• Resident
• Breeding (summer)
• Winter
• Passage
• dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

Where and when to look

Migration in March and October over ice-pushed ridges, hill country and watchpoints. Also check freshly ploughed fields and meadows being mown: Red Kites home in on them and circle low.

Conservation status

Not threatened (IUCN: Least Concern) after a clear recovery; the species was previously listed as Near Threatened. Poisoning — both illegal and indirect via rodenticides — remains the main cause of death, alongside collisions with wind turbines and power lines.