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First Recorded Polygynous Mating in the Red Kite &Lpar;<I>Milvus Milvus</I>&Rpar;

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First Recorded Polygynous Mating in the Red Kite &Lpar;<I>Milvus Milvus</I>&Rpar; 254 SHORTCOMMUNICATIONS VOL. 33, NO. 3 the Southern England Kite Group for helping to collect DEP,SSON, M. SYLVAN, A. SENOSIAIN AND EC. CARBO. kite chicksfor releasein the midlandsin 1997.The paper 1997. The re-establishment of Red Kite Milvus milvus benefitted greatly from the commentsof Dr. Ian Newton, breeding populationsin Scotlandand England. Br. Tom J. Cade and Harrison Tordoff. Birds 90:123-138. LOVEGROVE,R., G. ELLIOT AND K. SMITH. 1990. The Red LITERATURE CITED Kite in Britain. In CJ. Cadbury [ED.], RSPBConser- C&qTER, I.C., I.M. EV•NS •ND N. CROCKFORD.1995. The vation Review1990. Sandy,U.K. Red Kite re-introduction project in Britain--progress NEWTON,I. 1979. Populationecology of raptors.T. & A. so far and future plans. Br. Wildl. 7:18-25. D. Poyser,London, U.K. CR•vtP,S. 1985. Handbook of the birds of Europe, the , P.E. DAVISAND J.E. DAWS.1987. Age of first Middle East and North Africa: the birds of the West- breeding, dispersaland survivalof Red Kites Milvus ern Palearctic. Vol. 4. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, milvus in Wales. Ibis 131:16-21. U.K. , -- ANDD. Moss. 1994. Philopatryand pop- and K.E.L. SIMMONS. 1980. Handbook of the birds ulation growth of Red Kites Milvus milvusin Wales. Proc. R. Soc.Lond. B, 257:317-323. of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa: the INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR THE CONSERVATION OF NA- birds of the Western Palearctic. Vol. 2. Oxford Univ. TURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES. 1987. Translocation of Press, Oxford, U.K. living organisms:introductions, re-introductionsand EVANS, I.M., M.W. PIENKOWSKIAND R.H. DENNIS. 1991. re-stocking.IUCN, Gland, U.K. Experimental re-introduction of Red Kites: report to WATSON,J. 1997.The GoldenEagle. T. & A.D. Poyser, 1990. NCC CSD Res. Rep. No. 1224, Peterborough, London, U.K. U.K. , R.H. DENNIS, D.C. ORR-EWING,N. KJELLI•N,P. AN- Received29 August 1998; 11 April 1999 j. RaptorRes. 33(3):254-257 ¸ 1999 The Raptor ResearchFoundation, Inc. FIRSTRECORDED POLYGYNOUS MATING IN THE RED KITE (MJLvusM[LVUS) HEIN VAN KLEEF1 AND JAVIER BUSTAM_ANTE Departmentof AppliedBiology, Estaci•n Bioldgica de Do•ana, CSIC,Avda. Maria Luisas/n, 4101• Sevilla,Spain I•Y Worn)s: Red Kite,,Milvus milvus; bigamy;polygyny; be associatedwith relativelyproductive habitats with an Dohana, Spain. abundant food supply. The Red Kite (Milvusmilvus) is considereda monoga- Diurnal birds of prey are predominantlymonogamous mous raptor and to our knowledgeno instancesof polyg- (Newton1979). Alternative mating systems like polygyny, yny have been reported previously(Glutz von Blotzheim polyandry, or cooperative breeding are rare, but have et al. 1971,Newton 1979, Cramp and Simmons1980). Ac- been recorded in at least 16 speciesof raptors (Newton cordingto Glutzvon Blotzheimet al. (1971) and Cramp and Simmons (1980), both adults build nests. Incubation 1979, Faaborgand Bednarz 1990, Heredia and Donfizar is mainly done by femalesalthough malesmay incubate 1990, Tella 1993, Tella et al. 1996). Nonmonogamousre- for short periodsduring the day.Males bring prey to fe- lationshipsare easilyoverlooked when working with un- malesand defendnest sites during incubationand the first marked individualsand are almostcertainly more wide- twoweeks after hatchingwhile femalesbrood and feed the spread than published records show (Newton 1979). young. Later, both membersof pairs defend nest sitesand Polygynyin birds of prey has only been regularly ob- bring food to nests,where the youngfeed themselves.On servedin harriers (Circusspp.) although it has been oc- average,young fledge 55 d after hatching and are fed by casionally recorded in another nine species (Newton both parentsfor another 26 d in the vicinityof the nest 1979, Hiraldo et al. 1991, Tella et al. 1996) and seemsto (Bustamante1993). The entire hunting territoryis not de- fended,but Red Kitesdefend areassurrounding nest sites at leastuntil the young becomeindependent (Bustamante • Presentaddress: Burghardt van den Berghstraat163, and Hiraldo 1993). 6512 DK, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. In 1996 and 1997,we recordedthe presenceof a po- SEPTEMBER 1999 SHORT COMMUNICATIONS 255 lygynoustrio of Red Kites in the area around the "Palacio pine with prey and began incubating. The male "2AU" de Dofiana," Dofiana Biological Reserve, southwest was still incubating at 1415 H when observationswere Spain (37øN, 6ø30'W;Valverde 1958, Rogersand Myers stopped. 1980). The male could be identified by a white PVC band The nest tended by F2 could be checked from an ob- on the left leg with the code "2AU" that could be read servation tower nearby. F2 laid one egg that failed to with a telescopefrom approximately200 m. This bird was hatch for unknown reasons. We did not check the nest banded as a nestling by L. Garcia on 6 May 1977 in a used by F1 until 8 May 1996. We found it contained two pine forest named "Pinar de San Agustin," <1000 m young that hatched on 20 and 21 April based on the from the "Palacio de Dofiana." The bird was retrapped length of their 7th primary feathers (Bustamante1990) and observed several times during its life close to this Both young fledged. pine forest and was documented breeding in this area at OBSERV^TIONS IN 1997 least since 1984 (B. Heredia, L. Garcia, G. Vilchez, E Hiraldo, M. Pineda and R. Lafitte pers. comm.). One fe- We made opportunistic observationsof the polygynous male (F1) associated with this male was not banded and trio from 9 February-9 March. The male "2AU" wasseen could only be identified due to her proximity to one of copulating with both an unbanded female on three oc- the nests.The other female (F2) using the territory had casions (9, 10, and 11 February) and a female with a a metal band on the right leg, but we could not read this metal band on the right leg on three occasions(13 Feb- band. Due to the absence of differences in coloration or ruary, 9 and 13 March). We suspectthey were the same molting between the individuals,they could only be iden- females, F1 and F2, from 1996. F1 was seen copulating tified when they were perched in plain sight. and perched close to the male "2AU" in the same pine forest as in 1996 and F2 wasseen bringing nest mater•al OBSERVATIONS IN 1996 to a nest in a poplar (Populusalba) 100 m north of the Observations in March 1996 indicated that there was 1996 F2 nest. Only on one instance was the male seen a polygynous trio in the area around the "Palacio de bringing nestmaterial to the pine forest nest.The F1 nest Dofiana." On 8 March 1996, from 0757-1200 H, we were waslocated in a stone pine 50 m westfrom the 1996 nest simultaneouslyobserving what we thought were two dif- The distancebetween F1 and F2 nestswas approximately ferent pairs of breeding Red Kites.' One pair was ob- 750 m. servedbuilding a nestin a stonepine (Pinuspinea) inside Both nests were observed on a regular basis from 24 a small pine forest named "Pinar de San Agustin." One April-26 June, during which time the young of both nests kite was banded with a white PVC band on the left leg grew from a few daysold to fledging. Observationswere that was read with the telescope as "2AU." The other carried out from a blind and were restrictedto daysthat kite (F1) wasnot banded. During observations,both kites were mostlywithout cloudsand low wind speedsto min- were observedbringing material to the nest. On one oc- imize the effects of weather conditions on the hunting casion, they copulated indicating they were pair-bonded successand feeding frequency of the kites. During this and we deduced "2AU" was the male and F1 the female. period, F1 nest was observedfor a total of 33.4 hr on 11 A secondnest being observedwas in a tall eucalyptustree different days (i = 3.0 --- 2.0 hr, -SD). F2 nest was ob- (Eucalyptusglobulus) approximately 50 m east of the "Pa- served for a total of 41.9 hr on 11 different days (i = 3.8 lacio de Dofiana" and 800 m east of the first nest. Most + 1.6 hr, +SD). of the time only one kite (F2) was observedin the area, The F1 nest contained two young that were banded on flying and perching on the nest tree. This kite wasband- 30 April. We estimatedthat the young had hatched on 7 ed with a metal band on the right leg. At 0934 H, a sec- and 12 April. A total of 10 prey was observed delivered ond kite, banded with white PVC band on the left leg, to the nest during 33.4 hr of obserx•ation;five were wasseen perched 100 m from the nest.At 0959 and 1002 brought by the male "2AU," two by the female Fl. In H, the kites copulated twice in another eucalyptusclose three instances,it wasnot possibleto identify the individ- to the nest tree. The copulation positionsindicated that ual bringing the prey. F2 nest contained one young that F2 was a female but we were not able to read the PVC was banded on 17 May. We estimated hatching date to band code of the male with a telescope.At 1005 H, the have been 24 April. We recorded eight prey delivered to male with the white PVC band flew away.On 20 March the nest during 41.9 hr of observation and all were 1996, F2 was observed copulating with the male with a brought by the female F2. The male "2AU" was never white PVC band and both kites brought sticksto the nest seen at F2 nest. We approached both nests on several in the eucalyptustree. On 22 March 1996 at 1026 H, the occasions.F1 nest was defended by two adults (kites hov- nest was observed while F2 incubated.
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