Bird Watching or Twitching in Andalucia Southern Spain

October 2006, Red Kite - Milvus milvus

red kite

The red kite is a resident bird, but there are not many of them. The migratory birds that arrive in our area during October and leave around March boost their numbers. One of the best places to see this bird is from the battlements of the castle at Castellar de la Frontera looking out over the reservoir. With its slender wings and long, deeply forked tail it looks very elegant in flight as it circles on almost flat wings searching for small rodents and occasionally small birds. A bonus at Castellar is that if the red kite decides to stay at home that day you are almost bound to see a selection of buzzards (normally over the wooded valley) and members of the hawk family over the ridge on which the castle sits.