Red Kite

The English word "kite" is from the Old English cyta which is of unknown origin. A kite is mentioned by Geoffrey Chaucer in his Knight's Tale. The early 15th century Hengwrt manuscript contains the lines: "Ther cam a kyte, whil þt they were so wrothe That bar awey the boon bitwix hem bothe." The first recorded use of the word kite for the human-operated aerial device dates from the 17th century.

The red kite was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Falco milvus. * M. m. milvus (Linnaeus, 1758) – Europe and Northwest Africa to the Middle East * M. m. fasciicauda Hartert, 1914 – the Cape Verde Islands The subspecies M. m. fasciicauda is almost certainly extinct. The genus Milvus contains two other species: the black kite (M. migrans) and the yellow-billed kite (M. aegyptius). The red kite has been known to successfully hybridize with the black kite in captivity where both species were kept together, and in the wild on the Cape Verde Islands and infrequently in other places.

The red kites on the Cape Verde Islands are (or rather were) quite distinct in morphology, being somewhat intermediate with black kites. The question whether the Cape Verde kite should be considered a distinct species (Milvus fasciicauda) or a red kite subspecies has not been settled. A mitochondrial DNA study on museum specimens suggested that Cape Verde birds did not form a monophyletic lineage among or next to red kites. This interpretation is problematic: mtDNA analysis is susceptible to hybridization events, the evolutionary history of the Cape Verde population is not known, and the genetic relationship of red kites is confusing, with geographical proximity being no indicator of genetic relatedness and the overall genetic similarity high, perhaps indicating a relict species. Given the morphological distinctness of the Cape Verde birds and that the Cape Verde population was isolated from other populations of red kites, it cannot be conclusively resolved as to whether the Cape Verde population was not a distinct subspecies (as M. migrans fasciicauda) or even a species that frequently absorbed stragglers from the migrating European populations into its gene pool. The Cape Verde population became effectively extinct since 2000, all surviving birds being hybrids with black kites.

The genus Milvus contains two other species: the black kite (M. migrans) and the yellow-billed kite (M. aegyptius). A genetic study of kites in this area did not demonstrate any mtDNA from black kites in red kites or vice versa.

Adults differ from juveniles in a number of characteristics: * Adults are overall more deeply rufous, compared with the more washed out colour of juveniles; * Adults have black breast-streaks whereas on juveniles these are pale; * Juveniles have a less deeply forked tail, with a dark subterminal band; * Juveniles have pale tips to all of the greater-coverts (secondary and primary) on both the upper- and under-wings, forming a long narrow pale line; adults have pale fringes to upperwing secondary-coverts only. These differences hold throughout most of the first year of a bird's life.

===Breeding=== , Germany]] Usually red kites first breed when they are two years old, although exceptionally they can successfully breed when they are only one year old. They are monogamous and the pair-bond in populations is probably maintained during the winter, particularly when the pair remain on their breeding territory. For migrant populations the fidelity to a particular nesting site means that the pair-bond is likely to be renewed each breeding season. The nest is normally placed in a fork of a large hardwood tree at a height of between above the ground. A pair will sometimes use a nest from the previous year and can occasionally occupy an old nest of the common buzzard. The nest is built by both sexes. The male brings dead twigs in length which are placed by the female. The nest is lined with grass and sometimes also with sheep's wool. Unlike the black kite, no greenery is added to the nest. Both sexes continue to add material to the nest during the incubation and nestling periods. Nests vary greatly in size and can become large when the same nest is occupied for several seasons. The eggs are laid at three-day intervals. The clutch is usually between one and three eggs but four and even five eggs have occasionally been recorded. The eggs are non-glossy with a white ground and red-brown spots. The average size is with a calculated weight of . In Britain and central Europe, laying begins at the end of March but in the Mediterranean area laying begins in early March. The eggs are mainly incubated by the female, but the male will relieve her for short periods while she feeds. The male will also bring food for the female. Incubation starts as soon as the first egg is laid. Each egg hatches after 31 to 32 days but as they hatch asynchronously a clutch of three eggs requires 38 days of incubation. The chicks are cared for by both parents. The female them for the first 14 days while the male brings food to the nest which the female feeds to the chicks. Later both parents bring items of food which are placed in the nest to allow the chicks to feed themselves. The nestlings begin climbing onto branches around their nest from 45 days but they rarely before 48–50 days and sometimes not until they are 60–70 days of age. The young spend a further 15–20 days in the neighbourhood of the nest being fed by their parents. Only a single brood is raised each year but if the eggs are lost the female will relay. The maximum age recorded is 25 years and 8 months for a ringed bird in Germany. The BTO longevity record for Britain and Ireland is also 25 years and 8 months for a bird found dead in Buckinghamshire in 2018. In 2023, one of the first red kites reintroduced to the UK was found injured in Oxfordshire and later died, aged 29.

The red kites are generalist scavengers and predators. Their diets consist mainly of carrion of large domestic animals such as sheep and pigs, roadkill, and stranded fish. They also take small mammals such as mice, voles, shrews, stoats, young hares and rabbits. Live birds are also taken, especially young or wounded, such as crows, doves, starlings, thrushes, larks, gulls, and waterfowl. Here, up to 5% of householders have provided supplementary food for red kites, with chicken being the predominant meat provided. As scavengers, red kites are particularly susceptible to poisoning. Illegal poison baits set for foxes or crows are indiscriminate and kill protected birds and other animals. One such occurrence took place in Marlow, Buckinghamshire (a town near a major reintroduction site for the species in the UK in the nearby village of Stokenchurch), in which red kites swooped down to steal sandwiches from people in one of the town's parks.

Red kites inhabit broadleaf woodlands, pastures, mixed farmland, valleys and wetland edges, up to at least elevation. Most red kites that breed in the northern European mainland used to move south or west in winter, typically wintering in Spain and other parts of western Europe with a mild climate, as well as northwestern Africa (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) and Turkey. In recent decades, an increasing number of red kites from the northern European mainland have stayed in the region year-round. The populations in Germany (which alone is home to almost half of the world's breeding pairs), France and Spain declined between 1990 and 2000, and overall the species declined by almost 20% over those ten years. Populations in Germany and France have subsequently stabilised, and because of growth in other countries, the overall population is now increasing. The main threats to red kites are poisoning, through illegal direct poisoning and indirect poisoning from pesticides, particularly in the wintering ranges in France and Spain, and changes in agricultural practices causing a reduction in food resources. Other threats include electrocution, hunting and trapping, deforestation, egg-collection (on a local scale) and possibly competition with the generally more successful black kite M. migrans.

German populations declined by 25%–30% between 1991 and 1997, but have remained stable since. The populations of the northern foothills of the Harz Mountains (the most densely populated part of its range) suffered an estimated 50% decline from 1991 to 2001. In Spain, the species showed an overall decline in breeding population of up to 43% for the period 1994 to 2001–02, and surveys of wintering birds in 2003–04 suggest a similarly large decline in core wintering areas. The Balearic Islands population has declined from 41 to 47 breeding pairs in 1993 to just 10 in 2003. In France, breeding populations have decreased in the northeast, but seem to be stable in southwest and central France and Corsica. Populations elsewhere are stable or undergoing increases. In Sweden, the species has increased from 30 to 50 pairs in the 1970s to 1,200 breeding pairs in 2003 and has continued growing. In Switzerland, populations have been increasing since the 1990s. The red kite is the official landscape bird of the Swedish province of Scania, and depicted on the coat of arms of the municipality of Tomelilla.

, Scotland.]] In the United Kingdom, red kites were ubiquitous scavengers that lived on carrion and rubbish. Shakespeare's King Lear describes his daughter Goneril as a detested kite, and he wrote "when the kite builds, look to your lesser linen" in reference to them stealing washing hung out to dry in the nesting season.

Red kites were extinct in Ireland by the middle 19th century due to persecution, poisoning and woodland clearance. In May 2007, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government Dick Roche announced an agreement to bring at least 100 birds from Wales to restock the population as part of a five-year programme in the Wicklow Mountains, similar to the earlier golden eagle reintroduction programme. On 19 July 2007, the first 30 red kites were released in County Wicklow. On 22 May 2010, two newly hatched red kite chicks were discovered in the Wicklow Mountains, bringing the number of chicks hatched since reintroduction to seven.

, Berkshire.]] The following figures (mostly estimates) have been collated from various sources. They cover most of the countries in which red kites are believed to have bred. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Country ! Year ! Pairs ! Trend ! Notes |- | | | 0 | | Bred 1906 |- | | | 0 | | Bred in the 19th century, now extinct |- | | 2019 | 90–130 | | Extinct 1950, recolonised 1970s; 5–10 pairs in 2000 and since then rapidly increasing |- | | 1997 | 1 | | Extinct 1950s, recolonised 1985; 10 pairs 1990 |- | | 2020 | 350–400 | | Declined to 1–2 known pairs in 1967, then recovery | | Extinct c. 1920, then recolonised (from Germany/Sweden) 1970s. Slow increase up until the early 2000s (17 known pairs in 2001), since then rapidly increasing | | Extinct 1852, recolonised 1970s, but highly irregular until 2008, since then regular and increasing |- | | 2010 | 5 | | First successful breeding reported in 2010 following reintroduction in 2008 |- | | | 0 | |   |- | | 1980 | 0 | | Bred occasionally in the 19th century |- | | 2012 | 1,500–1,800 | | Increase from the low-point of 30–50 pairs in the 1970s |- | | 2013–2016 | 2,800–3,500 | | Declined 19th century, later recovery; 235–300 pairs in the late 1980s, 800–1,000 pairs in 1995. |- | | | 0 | | Bred in the 19th century, now extinct |- | | | 0 | | May have bred in past but no firm evidence |- | | 1990 | 5–8 | |   |- | | 2009 | c. 1,000 | | Declined to two pairs in the 1930s, then recovery |}

One of the best places to see the red kite in Scandinavia is Scania in southern Sweden. It may be observed in one of its breeding locations such as the Kullaberg Nature Preserve near Mölle. and the Bwlch Nant yr Arian forest visitor centre in Ceredigion where the rare leucistic variant can be seen. In England, the Oxfordshire part of the Chilterns has many red kites, especially near Henley-on-Thames and Watlington, where they were introduced on John Paul Getty's estate. Red Kites are also becoming common across the border in Buckinghamshire, often being seen near Stokenchurch, where a population was released in the 1990s, and Flackwell Heath near High Wycombe. They can also be seen around Harewood near Leeds where they were re-introduced in 1999. In Ireland they can be best observed at Redcross, near Avoca, County Wicklow.