The Nature of Scotland – Autumn 2011 – Issue 13

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The red kite was perhaps the most common bird of prey in Scotland
in the 1500s and yet, 300 years later the species was extinct
here. Today, thanks to human help, the species is making a strong
comeback and undoing the wrongs of the past.
In 2010 there were some 166 pairs breeding in the Scottish countryside.
Red kites draw large numbers of wildlife enthusiasts and tourists each year,
and have even become an internet sensation this summer with a huge online
following. This success is encouraging, but it’s worth reflecting back just a few
decades to when it was a very different story.
“The red kite’s history is almost as colourful as its unmistakeable plumage,”
explained Duncan Orr-Ewing, head of species and land management at RSPB
Scotland.
“Human killing, egg and skin collecting had devastated the Scottish
population and the species had disappeared from Scotland by about 1870.
The project to reintroduce them, which has gained the support of many land
managers and international partners, is now hailed as one of Europe’s biggest
conservation success stories.”
RSPB Scotland and SNH decided in the 1980s that urgent conservation
action was required and began taking steps to reintroduce the species in Scotland.
Between 1989 and 1994, the first of four phases aimed at returning kites to
Scotland’s skies began with the release of 93 red kites of Swedish origin on the
Black Isle. Further reintroductions followed in west Perthshire from 1996, Dumfries
and Galloway from 2001 and most recently in Aberdeenshire from 2009.
However, attempts by RSPB Scotland and SNH to restore red kite
populations able to survive on their own might have come to nothing if wasn’t for
the support of many landowners, farmers, foresters and gamekeepers.
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Acute eyesight enables
red kites to detect their
food.
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Reddish-brown
feathers make the red
kite easily
recognisable.
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An RSPB Scotland
field worker fits a radio
transmitter to a chick
on the Black Isle.
The Nature of Scotland