result of natural migrations and not by intentional or accidental introduction.
“It is clear that the man-made climate crisis is accelerating changes to our natural world, and this may well
lead to us seeing black kites in the UK in the future ... We would want to be sure that any black kites
arriving in the UK was a result of their natural movements and migrations,” he said.
In the past decade more than 55 land-based and marine species have moved to parts of Britain outside their
natural range. This includes purple herons – which bred successfully for the first time in Kent in 2010 – and
European bee eaters – which first bred in the UK in 2014.
According to a study, published in the Journal of Applied Ecology last month, 29 per cent of these natural
species movements have had negative impacts on nature or people. Twenty per cent were said to have
positive impacts.
Dr Nathalie Pettorelli, a senior research fellow at ZSL’s Institute of Zoology who led the research, believes
black kites are “very likely” to be added to list and does not believe they would cause any damage to UK
ecosystems.
If people think they see a black kite – or any other sightings of wildlife in an unexpected part of the country
- Dr Pettorelli asks them to post the sighting on Twitter and tag the @sotm_uk account.
This will help inform future research on the impact of climate change on UK wildlife.