Between 2003 and 2008 the Chilterns Conservation Board ran a red kite 'Nest Watch' project, to bring the public
up close and personal with a family of red kites. The project used Big Brother style CCTV technology to get an
insight into the breeding behaviour of a pair of red kites, as they built their nest, laid and incubated eggs and
reared their chicks. The following clips reveal the highs and lows of family life.
video clips from previous years
These three clips, from mid-June 2006 show the chick at 5-6 weeks:
Playing with the contents of the nest (including a food wrapper)
Being fed by both its parents
Having a 'tug-of-war' over a twig with its mother.
The chick was fitted with yellow and green tags with the number 51. It fledged at the end of June.
Video clip 4
In this first clip from 2004, the biggest chick viciously attacks its youngest sibling. With this regular harassment, it's not surprising that the smallest chick's development was severely hampered.
Video clip 5
This second clip again from 2004 shows a more amicable feeding session, with the mother feeding the smaller chick (on the right) and the father feeding the other two.
Video clip 6
In this first sequence from 2003, the chicks are 2-3 weeks old. Both parents are regularly bringing food to the nest – you will see first the female and then the male feed them. The youngest chick is a bit smaller than its siblings and occasionally gets picked on!
Video clip 7
In the second sequence from 2003, the chicks are 6-7 weeks old and have most of their adult plumage. They have not yet flown but spend a lot of their time flapping their wings to build up flight muscles. The oldest chick is attempting, with difficulty, to eat a weasel that a parent has brought in. You can just see one of the other chicks behind it.
What happened in previous years?
In 2003, all three chicks fledged successfully. They were fitted with coloured wing tags when about six weeks old so that they could be identified when they were spotted again. The tag on the left wing was yellow to indicate the bird is from the Chilterns and had a red strip at the bottom which showed they were hatched in 2003. On the right wing, the colours were reversed. The tags also had a number – our three chicks were assigned the numbers 65,66 and 67. To our knowledge, all three are alive and well. Number 67 attempted to breed in 2005, but was unsuccessful.
In 2004, the biggest of the three chicks was as removed from the nest for re-location to Southern Scotland. The two remaining chicks were fitted with yellow wing tags on each wing with the numbers A2 and A6 respectively. A6 fledged successfully, but A2 crash-landed the day after she fledged and had to receive care for an injured wing. She made a full recovery and was released in 2006 in a new red kite re-introduction programme near Gateshead.
In 2005, three chicks hatched, but only two survived. The bigger of the two surviving chicks was fitted with yellow and orange tags with the number 69 and was last spotted in March 2006. The smaller chick wasn’t big enough to have a tag fitted when the nest was visited. Due to technical difficulties, we were unable to capture any video footage in 2005.
In 2006, our parents deserted their nest, so a new nest was located. This new nest had been built by a different pair and they raised one single chick. This chick was fitted with yellow and green tags with the number 51. It fledged at the end of June.
In 2007 and 2008 the nests we were watching failed, probably due to bad weather.
In 2009 we were unable to locate a suitable nest to erect the camera on.
viewing the nest
watch video clips RealOne
Player is required to view these video clips (a free version of this player is also available).
We have provided 2 versions of each video clip (low
and high bandwidth options). Please select the version that
is most suited to your internet connection.
acknowledgments
The Chilterns Conservation Board would like to thank Advanced Diagnostics Ltd and Fidget Ltd for their equipment which helped make the nest watch project possible.
