Sympatric wintering of Red Kites and Black Kites in south-east Europe

Literák, Ivan and Horal, David and Raab, Rainer and Matušík, Hynek and Vyhnal, Stanislav and Rymešová, Dana and Spakovszky, Péter and Skartsi, Theodora and Poirazidis, Kostas and Zakkak, Sylvia and Tomik, Adrian and Skyrpan, Mykola (2019) Sympatric wintering of Red Kites and Black Kites in south-east Europe. ACTA ZOOLOGICA ACADEMIAE SCIENTIARUM HUNGARICAE : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ANIMAL TAXONOMY AND ECOLOGY, 65 (4). pp. 381-398. ISSN 1217-8837 (print); 2064-2474 (online)

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Abstract

We characterized the spatiotemporal activities in winter grounds of the tagged Red Kites Milvus milvus originated from Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia and wintering in south-east Europe. Birds arrived to winter grounds in Hungary, Croatia, and Greece from 10 July to 12 December (median 22 October) and departed from winter grounds between 14 February and 22 May (median 14 March), thus staying at winter grounds from 121 to 229 days (median 145, mean 161±43 SD). If we regarded kernel density estimate 80% (area of main foraging and roosting activities) as the best indicator as to the size of home range, we revealed that the size of a home range for Red Kites staying at one place through the entire winter was from 10 to 108 km2 (median 72, mean 60±36 SD) and that the size of home range for birds with local shift(s) in winter grounds was from 344 to 620 km2 (median 434, mean 466±115 SD). We found not only Red Kites at these places but often also Black Kites Milvus migrans. The numbers of Black Kites wintering together with Red Kites were higher than the number of Red Kites at all Greek winter grounds. At winter grounds in Hungary and Croatia, the number of Black Kites was lower than the number of Red Kites or Black Kites were wholly absent. Sympatric occurrences according to only direct observations of wintering Red and Black Kites were found also in some other locations in Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece and Hungary.

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