Red Kites – A Sad History
Red Kites were once common across Britain. Three hundred years ago,
they would have been a common sight over much of northern England. In
medieval times, red kites fed in the streets of London, where they were given
special protection for their useful role in cleansing the streets. Bones, of a
probable red kite, dating from the early 16th Century, excavated from the
Castle Ditch near the Old Castle, Newcastle upon Tyne, indicate that the
species may also have been an urban scavenger here in the North East.
Between the 17th and 19th centuries red kites suffered severe human
persecution. Although red kites are principally scavenging feeders, their main
food being carrion and invertebrates, people mistakenly believed that they
were a threat to game birds and livestock. Accounts of the churchwardens
for the parish of Corbridge record the bounties paid out on ‘vermin’, including
kites. The records show that 91 claims were made on 163 ‘gleads’ killed
between 1676 and 1723; confi rming both that the red kite was once a
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common species in this area and that it suffered heavy persecution. Such
persecution meant that by the end of the 19th century, just a handful of red
kites remained in the UK, all were in Wales, and this remained the case until
1989.
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