Family: Accipitridae (Hawks, Eagles)

Authority: (Linnaeus, 1758)

Red List Category

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Justification of Red List category
This species is now listed as Least Concern, as the population has been increasing at a rate that itself has been increasing for a number of years. Previously, Red Kite was listed as Near Threatened because of a suspected moderately rapid population decline, owing mostly to poisoning from pesticides and persecution, and changes in land-use amongst other threats. However, these declines have been more than compensated by increases in the majority of countries within its range, at a rate that means that declines over the past three generations have been overcome. There are still declines in southern Spain, Portugal, and locally in Germany and perhaps France, and the species has recently been lost as a breeding species in Morocco. Poisoning (both deliberate and accidental) remains the greatest threat to continued population growth and threatens the persistence of the species regionally, especially in southern Iberia. However, overall the data indicate that the global population has increased by more than 30% over the last three generations and the species is assessed as Least Concern.

Population size: 60000-70000 mature individuals

Population trend: increasing

Extent of occurrence (breeding/resident): 6,870,000 km²

Country endemic: no

Attributes
Realm - Afrotropical
Realm - Palearctic
IUCN System - Terrestrial
Raptors MOU