Red Kites Return Home After Conservation Success

Young red kites from England are helping rebuild a population that nearly disappeared from Spain, repaying a conservation effort that helped restore the species in England.

“It’s just adaptable. It just fits the landscape perfectly,” said Ian Carter, British naturalist and conservationist who helped reintroduce Spanish red kites to England in the 1990s.

Conservationists have released 126 young red kites from England in Spain’s Extremadura region since 2022, after surveys found just one breeding pair there in 2018 and another four the following year. The project builds on England’s remarkable recovery, with the UK population growing from 160 breeding pairs in 1995 to at least 4,600 in 2023. Farmers, hunters and the local electricity company are also helping create a safer 30,000-square-kilometre habitat, while around 1,400 electricity pylons have been fitted with safer perches. Some of the released birds are now breeding, and others have travelled into neighbouring Portugal, helping revive the population there too.