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Red Kites Return to Jaén as Dangerous Power Poles Are Made Safer

Red kite flying against a blue sky
Conservation: Reintroductions & translocations, Management

The red kite (Milvus milvus) disappeared as a breeding bird from Jaén in southern Spain in the early 2000s. Now it is back. Following the start of a reintroduction programme in 2021, breeding numbers rose from three pairs in 2023 to 22 in 2026. Alongside the releases, a particularly dangerous power line was made safer for birds of prey.

The line had been linked to the deaths of more than 50 threatened birds over five years. It crosses olive groves and riverside woodland in an area rich in rabbits, attracting hunting raptors. Its poles offer convenient perches but can become lethal: a bird may be electrocuted if it touches two live wires at once, or a live wire and a grounded part of the pole.

Birds used the area after the work

In 2021, protective measures were installed on 48 poles along the 2.5-kilometre line. The work brought together the landowner, conservation organisation GREFA and regional authorities, with support from the EU’s AQUILA a-LIFE project.

Between 2021 and 2025, 186 red kites were released, and 181 received GPS transmitters. Tracking showed that 21 birds subsequently used the area around the treated line, producing 802 recorded locations. None was recorded as electrocuted there. Monthly searches also found no other raptors killed by electrocution along the line. One red kite pair even established a nest about 150 metres away.

Threats remain elsewhere

Across all the GPS-tagged red kites, researchers recorded 80 deaths and identified the cause in 72 cases. Predators killed 34 birds. Human-related causes accounted for 33 deaths, including nine poisonings and eight electrocutions. Making one line safer therefore did not remove the dangers the birds faced elsewhere.

The authors see the findings as evidence for combining reintroductions with efforts to make habitats safer. In Jaén, the breeding population has grown while birds have used the area around a formerly hazardous line without recorded electrocutions. It offers a practical example of how targeting dangerous power poles can support the return of birds of prey.

Sources and image credit

  1. Iglesias-Lebrija, J. J., Garrido, J. R., Hermoso, R., Chamorro, A., Hernández, R., Álvarez, E., De La Fuente, S., Marco, M., Pastor, N., Martínez, E., Moraleda-Fernández, V., Izquierdo, P., & Galdón, A. (2026). Positive effect of power line mitigation on reintroduced red kite (Milvus milvus) population in southern Spain. Raptor Journal.Primary open-access research article published 11 September 2026. The accessible primary-source abstract was checked. Between 2021 and 2025, 186 Red Kites were released in Jaén and 181 carried GPS transmitters. Across 80 recorded deaths, 72 had an assigned cause; predation was the largest natural cause, while poisoning and electrocution were the leading reported anthropogenic causes. Twenty-one reintroduced kites used the area of a mitigated 48-pylon power line, producing 802 GPS fixes, with no mortality recorded in association with those structures. The paper reports breeding recovery from three pairs in 2023 to 22 in 2026.

Image: Charles J. Sharp — red kite photographed in Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom; representative image, not a bird from the Jaén study. Source: Wikimedia Commons. · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

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