UK red kites bring Spanish cousins back from the brink

A project to revive red kite populations in south-west Spain sees new mating pairs and chicks.

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Without a sound, it soars high in the sky above scrubland and within seconds disappears from view into a wooded valley in the distance.

It is the latest release in a conservation story that has come full circle.

Nearly four decades ago, the birds were extinct in England and Scotland with just a few pairs left in Wales.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, red kite chicks from Spain and Sweden were released in the Chilterns on the Oxfordshire-Buckinghamshire border.