130925-studie-wildlife-comeback-in-europe

Habitat preferences
Red kite habitat is variable, but open, often farmed
landscapes are generally preferred [1, 6] . Red kites are
mostly scavengers, feeding on carcasses, including
livestock and road kill, but will also take small
birds, rodents and invertebrates [1, 6] . They nest in
patches of woodland or isolated trees and form
loose breeding aggregations [1, 6] .
Legal protection and conservation status
The Red kite is listed on Appendix II of CITES,
Annex I of the EU Birds Directive, Annex II of the
Bern Convention and Annex II of the Convention
on Migratory Species [7] .
No. of breeding pairs
25,000
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
0
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
2013
300
240
180
120
60
0
Population index (%)
Abundance:
current status and changes
The current population of Red kites in Europe
comprises around 23,600 pairs, nearly half of
which are found in Germany (Table A1). Germany,
along with France and Spain form the core of
the breeding population in Europe, together
accounting for 67% of the total. Important populations
are also found in the UK and Sweden, each
holding 9% of the total population (Table A1).
Red kites declined globally until the 1970s,
but some populations recovered during
1970–1990 [2, 4, 10, 11] and the overall trend was
stable [12] . Declines have been documented in the
core breeding areas since 1990, amounting to
an overall population decline of 16% in the past
three Red kite generations [5, 6, 13] (Figure 1). These
declines have been partly offset by rapid increases
in northwest Europe and other parts of the species’
range, including the UK, Sweden, Switzerland and
Poland [11, 13, 14] .
Distribution:
current status and changes
It is clear that the distribution of the species
before the 20 th century used to be much larger, as
the remaining distribution is highly fragmented
and discontinuous [2, 30, 31] (Figure 2). By the end of
the 19 th century, Red kites had become extinct in
Figure 1.
Number of Red kite
breeding pairs in
Europe since 1970,
showing the decline
in the key populations
in Spain, France
and Germany
and increase in
northwest Europe,
based on BirdLife
International [5, 12] ,
the Species Action
Plan [14] and other key
sources. The overall
population trend is
also shown.
Figure 2. Current distribution of Red kite in Europe and historical distribution in the 1950s [29] and 1980s [30] .
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