Sightings are common along the M40 between Oxford and Wycombe, all the way down to Reading and Newbury on the M4. The Kites are a common sight above the houses of the Buckinghamshire village of Stokenchurch and its surrounding area. The reintroductions in The Chilterns have been a particular success, with a now well-established strong population across Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. In the second stage of reintroduction in 19, further birds were brought over from Germany to populate the areas of Dumfries and Galloway, and the Derwent Valley. In 1989 six Swedish birds were released at a site in north Scotland and four Swedish and one Welsh bird in Buckinghamshire.Īltogether, 93 birds of Swedish and Spanish origin were released at each of the sites. In the United Kingdom, the breeding population eventually became restricted to a handful of pairs in Wales, but recently the Welsh population has been supplemented by re-introductions in England and Scotland. Their scavenging nature makes them particularly vulnerable to accidental secondary poisoning, where they scavenge the carcass of an animal that has been poisoned and succumb to the poison themselves. In reality, they will only take small live prey as well as dead animals, and will rob other birds. Rumours spread amongst the farming community that they were capable of killing sheep, as they were often found scavenging off animal carcasses. In the Middle Ages, Red Kites were much more widespread, their scavenging habits making them the refuse collectors of the day, but their numbers have much decreased through illegal persecution and poisoning. These differences hold throughout most of the first year of a bird’s life. 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.Juveniles have a less deeply-forked tail, with a dark subterminal band.Adults have black breast-streaks whereas on juveniles these are pale.Adults are overall more deeply rufous, compared with the more washed out colour of juveniles.The call is a thin piping, similar to but less mewling than the Common Buzzard.įeatured Photo Differences between adults and juvenilesĪdults differ from juveniles in a number of characteristics:
Kite Information and Species Listing … Kites Photo Gallery.Differences between adults and juveniles.
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