Specie's Page                                               Birds of Prey -Red Kite

Red Kite:

UK Status: Resident in many parts of the UK.

Habitat: This bird requires tall mature trees in which to nest, surrounded by lots of open ground to search for carrion. Although carrion is there main diet, they are opportunistic and will eat worms, catch small mammals, and I've even seen one try to take a Woodpigeon off our garage roof, it was unsuccessful. They will quarter the skies over housing estates, industrial areas, open meadows, near rivers and lakes, anywhere they have a good chance of procuring a meal.

Breeding: The males bring the nesting material to the females, who then builds the nest. Nests are built from large twigs, and the fairly shallow cup is lined with dry grasses, sheep's wool, hair and other soft materials. Sometimes discarded man made materials are integrated into the nests, like paper and plastics etc. Nests are built in tall mature trees, and there is a clutch of one to four glossy white eggs with reddish brown speckles. The eggs take about thirty days to hatch, there is only a single brood each year.

Comment: This bird almost became extinct in the British Isles a few decades ago. After one of the longest running breeding and conservation plans, this bird was re-introduced to England and Scotland. It is now quite common in some parts of the UK, we see them a lot in Yorkshire. Where I live in Pudsey we have a breeding pair nesting on the green belt alongside the Leeds ring road, just a short distance from where I live.

Note: Our CCTV isn't fantastic quality, most of these pictures were captures from our cctv system.