what bird is this ?

[clint 45]

I see many of this bird , float around our ski. It is big & when around , all other bird hide, It watch our sheep & 1 farm feed with olds sheep. What is this big bird ?

Edited February 23, 2010 by clint

[poacher3161 1,766]

Its a red kite a magnificent bird of prey but more a scavenger than an hunter.atb dell

[watchman 256]

Its a red kite a magnificent bird of prey but more a scavenger than an hunter.atb dell

spot on mate.was in oxfordshire yesterday,counted 17 along small stretch of m40,great to see,but becoming very common in some areas

[leegreen 2,173]

One of the members of the "Shite Hawk family"

[michaelw5753 0]

common in north leeds i think they bred em at harewood house nice to see em tho

[runforyourlife 361]

you can count upto 16 0f them at a time a harewood house..

[Guest jt750]

Did you see them in the richmond area ? if so whereabouts ? i live not far from richmond and have never spotted them and the people i know haven't either

[kevin from bristol 95]

deff red kite there everywhere now

[Malt 379]

Nice to see the kites make a comeback all over the country.

 

Mad to think they used to be more numerous than crows in the cities a few hundred years ago!

[borntoshoot 1]

Yeah as everyone has said they are redkites. hundreds if not thousands round my way because the first breeding pair in south england was released by the owner of the Wormsley estate literally a mile from my house about 220-30 years ago.

 

great looking birds but you really dont want to be in the way when one takes a shit because its f*****g huge. one dented the lid of my weelie bin a few weeks ago and one shat on my mates car and smashed the windscreen.

 

and yes your right they are scavengers and will only hunt if they REALLY need to but even then they will only take mice and small rats, pheasant poults etc.

[stick 2]

scavengers, but bloody pretty birds. theres tonnes of em round my way, can often count 10 or more from the comfort of my own living room. and theres a red kite feeding centre or something similar just a few miles away. drive past there and theres literally too many to count

[hunterlass15 0]

Nice to see the kites make a comeback all over the country.

 

Mad to think they used to be more numerous than crows in the cities a few hundred years ago!

 

 

Thing is they released too many in Bucks/Oxford and now they're overrun with them! Definitely wayyy too many down there - especially in Stokenchurch! They didn't consider that they would breed so well after being reintroduced!

 

borntoshoot - there's no way a red kite shitting dented a bin lid and smashed a car windscreen...they'd have to shit bricks!

Edited July 3, 2010 by hunterlass15

[josh-waddingham 13]

funny you all mention oxford as i was travelling along the a40 through oxford last week on the way to work and seen a large female soaring not very high, on the way back about 4 hours later it was still there

were we go fly fishing in wales there are redkite farms. hundreds of red kites gather when the meat is dumped by the farmer it is something everyone must see.

[liftboy1 0]

Where I live we have the red kite feeding stations, I see hundreds a day. Barcud coch!

[Leeview 791]

The Red Kite breeding project at Harewood was initially a 7yrs project which folded as such after 4yrs, as someone mentioned the first released birds bred in the wild the following season and have continued to repopulate all over Yorkshire which was nt exactly anticipated so easily

Y.I.S Leeview