Red Kite
A species of Black and Red Kites Scientific name : Milvus milvus Genus : Black and Red Kites
Red Kite, A species of Black and Red Kites
Botanical name: Milvus milvus
Genus: Black and Red Kites
Content
Description General Info
Description
Red Kite is a large, graceful bird of prey with reddish-brown plumage, white breast and belly, and a forked tail. It's known for its acrobatic flying displays and can be found in open woodlands, grasslands, and farmland in Europe and Asia. It is a protected species and its population is recovering from past declines. 
Size
66 cm
Life Expectancy
26 years
Nest Placement
Tree
Feeding Habits
Red Kite primarily feasts on small mammals, carrion, and during spring, earthworms. Renowned for scavenging, red Kite adapts to urban feeding, including receiving supplementary food in gardens. Red Kite occasionally consumes live birds, reptiles, and amphibians, and demonstrates opportunistic behavior by seizing food from humans.
Habitat
The habitat of red Kite encompasses open woodlands and diverse countryside, which includes a mix of forests or woods with farmlands, pastures, and heathlands. These raptors adapt to various landscapes, often spending time in more open areas such as farmland, wastelands, scrublands, and wetlands during winter. Red Kite are known to roost in communal groups at traditional tree sites, although some remain near their nests year-round. They are also found in proximity to human habitation, exploiting food-rich areas at the outskirts of towns.
Dite type
Scavenger
General Info
Feeding Habits
Bird food type
Distribution Area
Red kites inhabit broadleaf woodlands, valleys and wetland edges, to 800 metres (2,600 ft). They are native to the western Palearctic, with the European population of 19,000–25,000 pairs encompassing 95% of its global breeding range. It breeds from Spain and Portugal east into central Europe and Ukraine, north to southern Sweden, Latvia and the UK, and south to southern Italy. There is a population in northern Morocco. Northern birds move south in winter, mostly staying in the west of the breeding range, but also to eastern Turkey, northern Tunisia and Algeria. The three largest populations (in Germany, France and Spain, which together hold more than 75% of the global population) declined between 1990 and 2000, and overall the species declined by almost 20% over the ten years. 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.
Species Status
Not globally threatened.
Scientific Classification
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