Red Kite

Milvus milvus

Once a London street scavenger eating Tudor garbage. Now the elegant fork-tailed glider of the British countryside.

Population: ~32,200–37,700 breeding pairs globally (Europe, with Germany hosting nearly half)
Habitat: Broadleaf woodlands interspersed with open pasture, farmland, and valleys, up to ~1,600 m elevation; increasingly also towns and roadsides
Fun fact: Once so common as an urban scavenger in Shakespeare's London that the playwright had King Lear warn "when the kite builds, look to lesser linen" (a reference to kites stealing washing left out to dry), the Red Kite later nearly vanished from Britain (surviving only in a handful of pairs in South Wales) before one of the world's longest-running reintroduction programs restored it across the UK.
Range: Europe, breeding from Portugal and Spain through central Europe to European Russia and north to southern Scandinavia; historically also West Asia and Northwest Africa; UK population re-established via reintroduction after near-extirpation to a handful of pairs in South Wales
Diet: Opportunistic scavenger and predator — carrion (including roadkill and livestock carcasses), small mammals such as mice, voles and rabbits, live birds, reptiles/amphibians, and invertebrates
Size: 0.65 m
Wingspan: 1.85 m
Lifespan: 25 years

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