Red Kite

• It eats carrion, small mammals, birds, earthworms and occasionally live prey.
• Its reintroduction to the United Kingdom is regarded as one of the most successful raptor conservation projects in Europe.
• A bird ringed in Germany reached a record 26 years and 8 months.
• comportamientoIt often feeds on carrion, and in several European cities it has learned to take food scraps near people, changing its traditional behaviour.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - pneumatised bony skeleton (bird)

Habitat and environment

Broadleaf woodland mixed with grassland and farmland in western and central Europe

Birth weight

Weight at hatching not found as a precise figure

Size at birth

Downy and dependent on hatching

Sexual maturity

2 years

Gestation / incubation

31-32 days per egg (up to 40 days to incubate the whole clutch)

Litter / clutch size

1 to 3 eggs per clutch

Life expectancy in captivity

A documented record of 26 years and 8 months, in a bird ringed in Germany

Sources consulted: Animal Diversity Web · A-Z Animals · Brickfields Park · Birda · Animal Corner · Bilderreich · AnAge (genomics.senescence.info) · Springer (home range study) · SEO/BirdLife: tras el fuerte declive de 1994-2004, la población reproductora creció un 15 % hasta 2014 y el censo invernal de 2024/2025 registró unos 20.000 ejemplares más que una década antes · Molina (Ed.) 2015, El milano real en España, III Censo Nacional, SEO/BirdLife · SEO/BirdLife, censo nacional de población invernante 2024/2025 · SEO/BirdLife, III Atlas de las aves en época de reproducción en España, ficha del milano real

Best time: In winter, between November and February, when Spain holds 60-75% of the European population and the kites form communal roosts of dozens or hundreds of birds, above all in Castile and León