Red Kite with no tail

[liner33]

This year we have a regular visitor of a young Kite with no tail, apparently its not unheard of and the bird seems to fly just fine , often see it with a couple of larger ones possibly its parents since we have had them nest locally for a few years.

Just thought i'd share, I wonder if anyone else has seen one , i suspect its a birth defect rather than injury myself

Previous reports of them - https://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/18864449.rar...

[thebraketester]

I've not seen one without a tail yet but they do have quite vicious fights with crows so it could be a fighting injury?

[moorx]

We have masses of them here (SW Wales) but never seen one without a tail! Wonderful birds. We are quite 'immune' to them being around now but I remember the first one I saw when we moved here and being amazed.

[liner33]

Yes very common here in Oxfordshire , many people feed them

[Tickle]

Beautiful birds, don't seem to be as common in the North West, I did see a couple (with their distinctive tail on) in North Wales last week.

Similar to buzzards, kites seem more common these days, from my own observations anyway.

[bigandclever]

Tickle said:

Beautiful birds, don't seem to be as common in the North West, I did see a couple (with their distinctive tail on) in North Wales last week.

Similar to buzzards, kites seem more common these days, from my own observations anyway.

Quite a cool story, the reintroduction of red kites to the UK 30 years ago. They were basically endangered; there were a handful of breeding pairs in deepest, darkest Wales and now the UK has something like 10% of the global breeding population. A real conservation project success.

[liner33]

Yeah they brought some in from Spain and started the program in Buckinghamshire iirc

[bigandclever]

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/30-year-anniver...

[LotusMartin]

I remember driving over to Aberystwyth on the A44 maybe 1990 and seeing a load of cars parked up with people watching a couple soaring around - a very rare sight in those days.

The whole M4 corridor has literally flocks of them flying around now. Only ever seen a couple here in North Devon. Easy so spot though amongst the Buzzards.