El milano real en España. II Censo Nacional (2004) - SEO/BirdLife

Red kite in Spain
Madrid, however, has seen an increase in the wintering population.This population
is concentrated both on the eastern side of the region, and the mid-Jarama
River valley, with the southern wintering nuclei having disappeared. The scarce
numbers in western locations are thought to be part of the resident population.
The second most important wintering area within Spain is Extremadura, which
nonetheless records a wintering population 23.2% smaller than that of 1994.
However, the decrease is uneven between provinces. The decrease in Cáceres
has been 9%, with lower wintering numbers in the north and stable numbers in
the southern end of the province. On the contrary, a dramatic decline of some
58% has been recorded for the main wintering areas in Badajoz.
The declining records for Castilla-La Mancha are between 33.6% and 55.7%.
Ciudad Real and Toledo are the provinces with the largest wintering numbers. In
Ciudad Real, numbers have gone from 500-700 red kite individuals in 1994 to
188-198 in 2004; in Toledo, the 400 individuals recorded in 1994 have dropped to
only 74 in the 2004 census. Cuenca province remains stable with 240-300 wintering
individuals, whilst two roosting sites have been identified in Albacete and
Guadalajara with 42 and 116 individuals, respectively. These two locations were
considered occasional wintering areas in the 1994 census, and the increase
recorded is possibly due to an improved survey rather than to an actual population
increase.
As to the situation in Andalucía, the data available does not allow for total estimates.
In the Balearics, in turn, a small wintering stage with 23 individuals in
2004 exists on the island of Mallorca, whilst the population in Menorca does not
vary during the winter months.
Breeding population census
The Spanish breeding population was considered to be the second most important
one in the world, with only Germany having higher figures (Tucker &
Heath, 1994). The decrease in the population, according to the latest breeding
censuses, reflects a critical situation for the species. The 1994 estimates were
3.333–4.054 pairs for the whole Spanish territory, whilst in the 2001 and 2004
censuses only 1.994-2.167 pairs were recorded (table 4). The latter estimate does
not include the populations in Extremadura, the second region in importance after
Castilla y León, or Andalucía. When considering only the regions for which
data exist both in the 1994 and the 2004 censuses, the decrease in the breeding
population is 46%. The decrease has affected all regions except for Navarra,
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