Red Kite

Milvus milvus

The red kite is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as eagles, buzzards, and harriers. The species currently breeds only in Europe, though it formerly also bred in West Asia and Northwest Africa. Historically, it was only resident in the milder parts of its range in Western Europe and Northwestern Africa, whereas all or most red kites in Northern mainland Europe wintered to the south and west, some also reaching western Asia, but an increasing number of northern birds now remain in that region year-round. Vagrants have reached north to Finland and south to Israel, Libya and the Gambia. Source

Where it is now

In the last 8 weeks this bird was recorded 85,873 times across 21 areas (each area is a 5 degree square).

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Movement and weather

Each season it is first heard regularly where daytime highs are around 9°C (typically 7 to 19°C, from 11 areas). That range is wide, so temperature alone does not explain when it turns up.

Over the weeks it was present in the past year, its centre in Europe ranged from 43°N in January to 53°N in July, about 1,100 km apart.

Arrival dates

The week it was first heard regularly in each region, after at least six weeks away. Dates differ from south to north, so a region has a range.

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Figures are effort corrected and come from automatic sound identification, which makes mistakes. How this is measured and how it compares with human observers.