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Thirteen Young Red Kites Were Released in Aspromonte in the Fourth Reintroduction Year

Red kite in flight in Jura, Switzerland
Conservation · Reintroductions & translocations

Thirteen young red kites (Milvus milvus) were released into the wild in Aspromonte National Park in southern Italy on 9 July 2026 as part of the LIFE MILVUS reintroduction programme. The birds had been fitted with identification rings and GPS and VHF tracking devices the previous day so that the project team can follow their movements after release.

Twelve of the young kites had been taken from wild nests in donor populations in the Canton of Fribourg in Switzerland and on Corsica in France. The thirteenth bird had been bred at the San Giuliano Wildlife Recovery Center in Italy. The operation was coordinated by the Aspromonte National Park Authority with ornithologists from the StOrCal and CERM associations and other project partners.

The 2026 release was the fourth annual release carried out in the park. LIFE MILVUS is working to re-establish the red kite in Calabria, where the species had almost disappeared, while also carrying out measures such as monitoring released birds, reducing electrocution risks and creating safe supplementary feeding opportunities.

Sources and image credit

  1. LIFE MILVUS. (2026, July 15). Monitoring Visit for the LIFE MILVUS Project.Primary project update published 15 July 2026. It reports that 13 young red kites were fitted with rings and GPS/VHF devices on 8 July and released in Aspromonte National Park on 9 July; 12 came from wild nests in Switzerland and Corsica and one was captive-bred in Italy. The release marked the fourth year of releases in the park.

Image: Noel Reynolds / Wikimedia Commons / Flickr — red kite (Milvus milvus) photographed in Jura, Switzerland, on 15 June 2010. Representative image from Switzerland, one of the donor regions used for the Aspromonte reintroduction; not one of the birds released in 2026. · CC BY 2.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ · Source

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