Buzzard and Red Kite

Hi Ken, buzzards and red kites will often share their airspace, they don't usually have a problem with the other and buzzards often join red kites at feeding stations.  Red kites are social birds and are only territorial around the nest site, they will often gather together in large numbers.  Buzzards too will often gather together in a group, pretty sure someone on here saw a group of 20 buzzards together!

Great shots there. I photograph the Red Kites near Dunkeld at a feeding station there, the Kites there always wait for the Buzzards to make the first move before landing. The Kites are not as rough and tough as the buzzards lol so they do pair up quite often as Kat has said

Unknown said:

Great shots there. I photograph the Red Kites near Dunkeld at a feeding station there, the Kites there always wait for the Buzzards to make the first move before landing. The Kites are not as rough and tough as the buzzards lol so they do pair up quite often as Kat has said

There's a feeding station near Dunkeld???

Looks like they're sharing a convenient thermal much as glider pilots do....

JBNTS

Hiya Alan

Thanks for the comments.

I use a Canon 550d with a 70-300mm image-stabilising lens (not the L series) so nothing really special. The birds were pretty low, although I still had to magnify them using photoshop. Red Kites are pretty common up here: the nearby Harewood estate was one of the places where they were re-established a few years ago.

KatTai and BL, Hi and thanks for bringing me up to speed with that info. I've seen the two species in two's and three's before, but not mixed like this. They were really chummed-up!

Regards

Ken

Kat I meant Doune, lol Argaty I usually go to both places on the same day, Doune for the Kites and Dunkeld area for the Ospreys

Phew!  Thought I was missing out on something there lol  

Great photos and really shows the differences in wing patterns and tail shape between the two when flying overhead,

Sarah