Once one of the commonest  British birds of prey, the Red Kite became virtually extinct in this country. Farmers, convinced it was taking their lambs, would put down poison to kill it. The rarer it became, the greater became the value of its eggs to collectors in recent years. Today, after a sustained programme of reintroduction and protection, and after the prosecution of a number of illegal egg collectors, the Red Kite is once more a relatively common sight in Wales - if one knows where to look! 

The Red Kite has been more commonly seen in West Wales over the last few years. We frequently see them hovering and soaring above the sea cliffs on the A487 between Aberaeron and Llanon. Ten years ago, they were established further inland around the hills of Tregaron and Llandewi Brefi, but they seldom ventured to the Ceredigion coast. 

The Red Kite spends long hours soaring on the rising air currents above a hillside, often without flapping its slender wings for many minutes. The bird is superbly adapted as a glider, with a wing span of almost two metres, but with a body mass of only one kilo. Its long forked tail provides the perfect balance and control required to take advantage of the slightest up draught. Only when it sees prey or encounters a challenger is there a change in its routine.

Historical

The Red Kite has been in Britain for a very long time. Red Kite bones dating back 120,000 years have been found in the caves of the Gower peninsula in South Wales along with the remains of straight-tusked elephant, hippopotamus, mammoth, soft-nosed rhinoceros, cave bear, wolf and lion. At that time, the English channel did not exist and Britain was part of the European mainland. South Wales was joined to Somerset and Devon by a deep wooded valley and the birds and animals were untroubled by Mankind - he had not arrived in Britain then. 

Mesolithic hunter-gatherers arrived some ten thousand years ago and set about changing the natural landscape. Farming began about six thousand years ago and for the first time Mankind found himself in competition with various wildlife species.

William Turner  - born 1508 - wrote about the Red Kite in Avium praecipuarum historia, 1544. He noted that they would dare to 'snatch bread from children, fish from women and handkerchiefs from hedges'. 

In 1457, James the second of Scotland decreed that the Kite should be killed wherever possible, but it remained protected in England and Wales along with the Raven for another hundred years, as it served the purpose of cleaning the streets of carrion. 

A law was passed in 1566 in which a number of birds and mammals thought to be in competition with the rural community were encouraged to be killed. A bounty was established that offered 'one penney for the head of every Woodwall (Woodpecker), Pye, Jaye, Raven or Kyte.' Over the next two hundred years, a virtual war was waged by the rural community on a number of birds and mammals, including the Red Kite, which were trapped and killed to near if not total extinction. The hobby of egg collecting did much to reduce numbers as they became even less common. 

The Red Kite mates for life and forms a relationship with its mate at between two to four years of age. They nest early, beginning nest building as early as February with the two to four eggs being laid in March or April. The nests are untidy structures in trees - usually Oak trees and are up to one metre in diameter. They are  often decorated with sheep's wool, plastic bags and other collected items, while the nest lining is made from sheep's wool. In medieval London, the Kite would take handkerchiefs and small items of clothing from washing lines - so much so that Shakespeare wrote: 'When the Kite builds, look to lesser linen'. In 1871, J. E. Harting wrote that a nest was decorated with 'small pieces of linen, part of a saddle girth, a bit of harvest glove, part of a straw bonnet, pieces of paper and a worsted garter.'

The eggs are incubated mainly by the female Kite for thirty one or thirty two days.  After hatching, the male brings food back to the nest for the female, who tears it into smaller pieces to feed the young birds.  The young Kites remain in the nest for about eight weeks until they are fully fledged and ready for their first flight.

The Red Kite has very keen eyesight and can detect the minute movements of small animals from high in the air. Its diet is varied, ranging from invertebrates to small mammals and birds and carrion. However, it will not kill a lamb or sheep although it will feed from the carcass of a dead sheep after stronger scavengers have exposed the entrails.

Crows are commonly seen mobbing buzzards, less commonly Red kites. However, one such encounter this Easter gave me an insight into the grace, beauty and skill of the Kite. The combatants on this occasion first appeared from out of the distance as no more than dots against the bluest of April skies. Only as they came closer, jousting low over a deep valley could they be identified. The crow flapping away continuously and lunging at the Kite with its beak whenever the opportunity arose. In contrast the kite scarcely moved its wings, folding and turning them only to change direction as it tried to grab the crow with momentarily outstretched talons. 

The Kite circled the Oak tree once, then, folding its wings close to its body plunged down towards the Crow and its nest just as a Peregrine would stoop to its prey. As the Kite turned, the sunlight reflected from the feathers, clearly showing the russet and white pattern atop the wings. The dark silhouette had become transformed at once into an object of beauty.

Somehow the Kite passed through the bare branches of the Oak without catching the Crow or hitting any branches. The Kite was persistent, repeatedly diving on the hapless Crow but without success.