Bird Watch:
This forked-tailed scavenger is truly a thing of beauty, says Ruth
FEW birds have had more of a rollercoaster ride in the popularity stakes than the red kite (Milvus milvus).
In the Middle Ages these majestic birds, easily identified by their forked tails, were valued as scavengers, helping keep city streets clean of carrion. They were so important to public hygiene that killing one was a capital offence, even though they stole washing to line their nests!
As Shakespeare wrote in
The Winter’s Tale: ‘When the kite builds, look to lesser linen’.
But times changed, they were persecuted as vermin (blamed for carrying off small domestic pets) and numbers fell so sharply that by the time they became a protected species in 1903 there were only a few breeding pairs left, secure in the fastnesses of central Wales. Thanks to conservation work, kites are becoming a more familiar sight and there are around 4,500 breeding pairs scattered across central England and most of Wales, although numbers are lower in Scotland.
Once seen, these large birds are never forgotten, with their bronze plumage, white underwings and forked tail. Their wings are longer, slimmer and less blunt than those of a buzzard.
Kite nests are untidy affairs built in tall trees and often lined with wool. They lay two eggs and young birds often travel far and wide in their first two years of life before finding a territory.
As a resident of the south-west, my closest sightings are along the M3 corridor near Basingstoke, though we occasionally see them here in Dorset. If they decide to move closer on a permanent basis, I shall have to devise a laundry-protection gadget!
Ruth Hayes