Partnerships prove key to Red Kite recovery
By birdwatching Theme Weeks organiser Peter WilkinsonThere can be few more elegant sights in the bird world than a Red Kite gliding effortlessly across the sky on slightly bent wings, the two halves of its long forked tail seemingly moving independently of each other, and its red tints - from which it gets its name - glinting in the sunshine.
Roughly the same size as a Common Buzzard, and often occurring in the same places, Red Kites are easily recognisable by their distinctive shape and colour. Unlike the closely related, and widely distributed, Black Kite, they are one of the comparatively few species endemic to the Western Palaearctic.
Just three countries - Spain, France and Germany - account for the bulk of the Red Kite's population: perhaps 20,000 pairs out of a total population of up to 25,000 pairs. Even such a large and apparently conspicuous bird is, however, not easy to census. And, sadly, there is evidence of recent small declines in all three of these key countries. This is only partially offset by welcome increases in other countries that have smaller populations - not least, the UK.
Migrants
Birds from the more northerly and easterly populations are short distance migrants, wintering alongside the more southern, sedentary populations. British Kites are non-migratory, though young birds will disperse quite considerable distances before returning to their natal area to breed. (Birds have been reported from Spain and Portugal. And one young bird, from a reintroduction site in Scotland, even managed to reach Iceland!)
Red Kites used to be common in the UK: they are mentioned by Shakespeare as scavenging for scraps and bits of clothing for their nests, as the more common Black Kite still does in many parts of the world. There followed, however, a very significant decline - probably resulting from a combination of improved hygiene and sanitation, and the prejudice against any bird with a hooked beak that seemed to beset gamekeepers in former times.
The Kites were even declared to be vermin by an Act of Parliament.
In fact, they are of no threat to game interests - being scavengers of carrion - and, when they do take live prey, they concentrate on small birds and mammals. By the end of the nineteenth century, they had been extirpated from England and Scotland, and the last few surviving pairs were confined to wild and remote sheep country in Wales.
However romantic the setting, this is, unfortunately, far from an ideal habitat for Kites. The survivors struggled on, beset by poor productivity, low genetic diversity (DNA studies have shown that, by the 1930s, only a single female was breeding successfully), and continued persecution, from egg collectors and illegal poisoning.
Heroic
The Kites were, however, aided by the heroic protection efforts of the Kite Committee and its successors from the early 1900s, against what must at times have seemed overwhelming odds. It was a long struggle: by the 1960s there were still thought to be only around 30 or so birds in Wales.
In the 1970s, however, a new female, probably from Germany, arrived in the population, increasing its genetic diversity and the next two decades at last saw the hard work of previous years come to fruition, with a significant increase in the population size (which reached between 200 and 300 pairs by the start of the new century).
It had, however, become clear, by the 1980s, that the Welsh population would take a long time to expand sufficiently to re-colonise the much larger areas of England and Scotland that had once supported the species (and appeared to remain suitable for it, if only the birds could reach it).
Partnerships
As all the conditions for a reintroduction scheme were met, in 1989 the RSPB, English Nature and Scottish Natural Heritage - with the support of a number of other organisations - started to release young Kites taken from nests in Spain and Sweden (whose populations were robust enough not to be jeopardised by the taking) at two sites, in Buckinghamshire and in Scotland.
By 1992, released birds were breeding in both sites and, two years later, the progeny of released birds were themselves breeding (Kites usually start to breed at the age of two).
In 1994, a further release site was initiated in the East Midlands (some of the birds for which came from the successful Buckinghamshire site).
Several more sites have since been added to the scheme: two in Scotland, one central and one in Dumfries and Galloway, and two more in England, specifically Harewood House near Leeds and the Derwent Valley in the north-east.
Expectations
With the success of the reintroduction programme quite possibly exceeding the expectations of its originators - and perhaps 1,000 pairs already breeding in Britain - the future for the Red Kite seems more secure than it has for several hundred years.
Sadly, that future is not free from threats, and poisoning still claims the lives of far too many birds, even though the Kites are unlikely to be the intended target of this totally illegal and dangerous practice. Despite this, who knows what the upper limit of the population might ultimately be? 10,000 to 20,000 pairs might not be unrealistic, and that would still leave the Red Kite trailing the Common Buzzard by quite a large margin.
Most Kites return close to their natal area to breed and they can nest at quite extraordinary densities, so range expansion is often slow.
Well intentioned - but ultimately unsuitable - feeding practices in some areas may be encouraging greater densities than they would otherwise achieve, and can also result in abnormal development of the young. Carefully managed feeding stations, however, can afford unrivalled opportunities for viewing these spectacular birds.
Protection
With the number of Red Kites that now grace our skies, they have become quite easy to spot. The dispersive behaviour - especially of young birds - means that they can turn up almost anywhere (sometimes far from the concentrations in Wales and around the reintroduction sites).
They are also remarkably sociable birds; both feeding and roosting congregations can on occasion number into the 100s. There is a well established feeding station at Gigrin Farm near Rhayader in Wales, which offers spectacular and close views of Kites harrying other scavengers in the air for scraps.
The species is afforded special protection from disturbance at the nest (to which they are sensitive), by virtue of being on Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, but nesting behaviour can increasingly be watched on webcams and CCTV at visitor centres, such as the Forestry Commission's Rockingham Centre in the East Midlands.
All in all, then, the Red Kite is a great success story for UK conservation - though we need to remain vigilant, both here and in the rest of its comparatively restricted range.
