![]() Their scavenging nature makes them particularly vulnerable to accidental secondary poisoning, where they scavenge the carcass of an animal that has been poisoned and succumb to the poison themselves. In reality, they will only take small live prey as well as dead animals and will rob other birds. Rumors spread amongst the farming community that they were capable of killing sheep, as they were often found scavenging off animal carcasses. In the Middle Ages, Red Kites were much more widespread, their scavenging habits making them the refuse collectors of the day, but their numbers have much decreased through illegal persecution and poisoning. These differences hold throughout most of the first year of a bird’s life. Juveniles have pale tips to all of the greater-coverts (secondary and primary) on both the upper- and under-wings, forming a long narrow pale line adults have pale fringes to upperwing secondary-coverts only.Juveniles have a less deeply-forked tail, with a dark subterminal band.Adults have black breast streaks whereas on juveniles these are pale.Adults are overall more deeply rufous, compared with the more washed-out colour of juveniles.The call is a thin piping, similar to but less mewling than the Common Buzzard.įeatured Photo Differences between adults and juvenilesĪdults differ from juveniles in a number of characteristics: Apart from the weight difference, males and females look alike, but juveniles have a buff breast and belly. The white primary flight feathers contrast with the black wing tips and dark secondaries (shorter, upper “arm” feathers). The body, upper tail, and wing coverts are rufous. It is an elegant bird, soaring with long wings held at a dihedral, and a long forked tail twisting as it changes direction. The Red Kite is 60–66 cm (24-27 in) long with a 175–195 cm wingspan males have a weight of 800–1200 g, and females 1000–1300 g. Differences between adults and juveniles.
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