Welsh red kite lived to a ripe old age but time finally caught up with it 26 years after it was ringed as a nestling

                                                                         

Wild red kites seldom live longer than 10 years

OLD age is probably what has accounted for the demise of a red kite in Wales.

Because of its frail condition, the bird was put down - aged 26 which is almost three times the 10-year normal lifespan of this species in the wild.

The RSPCA was alerted when the kite, which was unable to fly,  was detected in a collapsed state  in Llanybydder, Carmarthenshire.

A ring on its leg dated it to June 20, 1997, at a nearby location, when it was still a nestling.

The BTO had no other record of this bird or its movements, but it now has a place in the record books as the  oldest known wild red kite in Britain and Ireland.

                                                      

The ring on the bird's leg revealed its age (photo: RSPCA)