A British red kite emerges from an aviary in the remote hills of western Spain and takes flight. At six months old, this is its first taste of freedom. Without a sound, it soars high in the sky above scrubland and within seconds disappears from view into a wooded valley in the distance. It is the latest release in a conservation story that has come full circle.
Nearly four decades ago, the birds were extinct in England and Scotland with just a few pairs left in Wales. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, red kite chicks from Spain and Sweden were released in the Chilterns on the Oxfordshire-Buckinghamshire border. It proved so successful that the species is now thriving across the UK, with estimates of more than 6,000 mating pairs or about 15% of the world's population.
British-born red kite chicks have now been taken to south west Spain as part of a four-year project to revive the population there from the brink of extinction. The region has fewer than 50 mating pairs due to predators like the eagle owl and human factors such as illegal poisoning and electrocution. In 2022, conservationists were granted special licenses from Natural England to collect red kite chicks, mostly from Northamptonshire, and send them over to the Extremadura region of Spain.
More than 120 chicks have been collected, with about 30 exported each year. The chicks are flown to Madrid and then transported to a wildlife hospital in Villafranca de los Barros, where they are monitored closely.
Once in Spain, the juveniles are tagged and fitted with GPS backpacks to aid in their monitoring. They are then acclimatized for two weeks before their release. The hope is for these birds to adapt, find food, and establish a self-sustaining population in their new surroundings.
However, the journey is fraught with challenges. The mortality rate for raptors is notably high during their early years. In fact, only about a quarter of the red kites released during the project have survived, with internal and external threats including predators and natural causes. Conservationists work rigorously to adapt their release strategies to mitigate these risks.
With three mating pairs and two surviving chicks reported in the Extremadura region, there is optimism for the future. Conservationists are looking to expand their efforts to other areas of Spain, drawing on the successes and lessons learned from this groundbreaking initiative.
