Milvus milvus Jura🦅

Photo: Noel Reynolds · CC BY 2.0

SpeciesAccipitriformesAccipitridae
Birds

🦅Red Kite

Milvus milvus (Linnaeus, 1758)

The red kite is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as eagles, buzzards, and harriers. The species currently breeds only in Europe, though it formerly also bred in West Asia and Northwest Africa. Historically, it was only resident in the milder parts of its range in Western Europe and Northwestern Africa, whereas all or most red kites in Northern mainland Europe wintered to the south and west, some also reaching western Asia, but an increasing number of northern birds now remain in that region year-round. Vagrants have reached north to Finland and south to Israel, Libya and the Gambia.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Videos
14
Photos
5
Measurements
10
vs you
≈ 1/58th of your weight
Conservation status
LCLeast concern

IUCN Red List assessment, 2020.

Population trendIncreasing
Key measurements
Body mass
1.07 kg
Body length
not recorded
Shoulder height
not recorded
Top speed
not recorded
Bite force
not recorded
Maximum lifespan
38 years
All measurements ↓
Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Red Kite

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass
1.07 kg
AVONET
Other figures ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

By sex

  • Female1.23 kgWikidataQ156250
  • Male1.01 kgWikidataQ156250

Figures vary

  • 1.08 kgAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Tail length
0.32 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Wing length
0.48 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Beak length
0.04 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Tarsus length
0.05 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Maximum lifespan
38 years
AnAge
Details ↓

data quality: acceptable

Source: AnAge · AnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR) · CC BY 3.0

Trophic level
Omnivore
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Habitat
Shrubland
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Lifestyle
Generalist
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Volume l
1.1 Laverage
Details ↓

Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.

average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.

Not recorded for Red Kite yet: body length, shoulder height, top speed, bite force.

More

More about the Red Kite

Closest relative on this site
🦅 Black Kite — last shared an ancestor ≈ 2.0 million years ago.
In other languages
Rotmilan (de), червена каня (bg), milà reial (ca), luňák červený (cs), rød glente (da), Ψαλιδιάρης (el) … and 26 more languages

Animals caught on camera

Real footage of the animals on this site — hunting, fighting, and getting on with it.

See all 14 videos →
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