{"id":80983,"date":"2024-02-22T16:05:39","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T16:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/?p=80983"},"modified":"2024-03-05T20:32:29","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T20:32:29","slug":"red-kites-wales-bird-gigrin-farm-leucistic-red-kites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/science-environment\/red-kites-wales-bird-gigrin-farm-leucistic-red-kites","title":{"rendered":"Return of Red Kite: A successful wildlife conservation in Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Red Kite, a common bird in the Middle Ages, was reborn under the protection of Wales after a near extinction.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/02\/image-1-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-81042\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/02\/image-1-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/02\/image-1-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/02\/image-1-770x433.png 770w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/02\/image-1-293x165.png 293w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/02\/image-1.png 1390w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/02\/image-1-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-81042\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/02\/image-1-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/02\/image-1-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/02\/image-1-770x433.png 770w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/02\/image-1-293x165.png 293w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/02\/image-1.png 1390w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Red kites in Gigrin Farm, its wingspan can be 175-195cm.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Welsh birdwatchers have been enjoying sightings of a rare white kite in one of the country\u2019s leading hotspots for nature travellers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gigrin Farm has long been associated with red kites, one of the most emblematic species in Wales, and the arrival of three leucistic birds has caused great excitement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMany people have come to the farm to see it,\u201d says a visitor to the Gigrin Farm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What are leucistic birds?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Leucistic red kites are defined as the complete or partial absence of two kinds of pigment in one or more feathers, but not in the eyes, bill or feet.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are only ten leucistic red kites\u00a0in the world,\u00a0and three of them which regularly visit the Gigrin farm. \u00a0&#8220;It would be logistically very difficult to re-introduce these birds elsewhere,&#8221; says Dominique Powell, the owner of Gigrin farm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gigrin is a family run upland sheep farm, and became the official red kite feeding station in the winter of 1993 following a request from the RSPB who had witnessed the late Mr. Powell feeding the kites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just an accident,\u201d says Dominique. \u201cMy late father-in-law, Mr Eithel Powell,  found a red kite was feeding on a rabbit caught by the family dog &#8220;Jamie&#8221; on 1993, and then they kept leaving\u00a0more carcasses out for the kites.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The RSPB became aware of this, because Red Kites were so rare at that time, and in danger of becoming extinct, the RSPB asked if the farm would consider putting food out every day over the winter months to encourage the Kites. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The farm agreed to do that, and in order to pay for the cost of purchasing meat for the birds the farm started to allow members of the public to pay to come and see the Kites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe have grown from there.\u201d says Dominique. \u201cWe started off with just a couple of birds, moving up to around a dozen, and now we typically see around 400 kites daily in the winter, sometimes more if the weather is very cold. \u00a0The Red Kites are now fed daily throughout the year and have been for the last 30 years which is quite an achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Red Kite was once a common bird in mediaeval times in UK, but was persecuted and nearly&nbsp;extinct in the mid-19<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;to early 20<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;In the 1980s, anyone who wanted to see a red kite had to make a dedicated pilgrimage to a handful of locations. Today, it is a daily sight for millions of people.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;said Jeff Knott, RSPB operations director for Central and East England. \u201cIn just a few decades, we have brought an endangered species to the UK, home to nearly 10% of the world&#8217;s population. This could be the greatest species success story in British conservation history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Except for <a href=\"https:\/\/gigrin.co.uk\">Gigrin Farm<\/a>, there\u2019s some other sites for people to see and feed red kite too. The&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.redkiteswales.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Llanddeusant&nbsp;Red Kite Feeding Station<\/a>&nbsp;in the Brecon Beacons National Park in Carmarthenshire, and the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitwales.com\/product\/915108\">Bwlch Nant Yr Arian Centre<\/a>&nbsp;in Ponterwyd. They\u2019re also seen regularly at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitwales.com\/product\/932504\">RSPB Cwm Clydach<\/a>&nbsp;in the Swansea Valleys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You might see red kites anywhere in the UK these days, but Wales is their eternal home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Red Kite, a common bird in the Middle Ages, was reborn under the protection of Wales after a near extinction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1078,"featured_media":81042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1207],"class_list":["post-80983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-environment"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - 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