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79-614: Christmas Common is a hamlet in Watlington civil parish , Oxfordshire about 7 + 1 ⁄ 2 miles (12 km) south of Thame in Oxfordshire, close to the boundary with Buckinghamshire . The hamlet is 812 feet (247 m) above sea level on an escarpment of the Chiltern Hills . Because of its elevation, Christmas Common has two radio masts that are prominent local landmarks . The hamlet's unusual toponym

158-578: A buurtschap officially is a part of another place (e.g. Bartlehiem , part of Wyns ). In Pakistan, a hamlet is called a gaaon گاؤں or mauza موضع in Urdu , giraaan گراں or pind پنڈ in Punjabi , and kalay کلې in Pashto . It is almost synonymous to 'village'. In Poland, the law recognises a number of different kinds of rural settlement . Przysiółek (which can be translated as "hamlet") refers to

237-525: A detested kite , and he wrote "when the kite builds, look to your lesser linen" in reference to them stealing washing hung out to dry in the nesting season. In the mid-15th century, King James II of Scotland decreed that they should be "killed wherever possible", but they remained protected in England and Wales for the next 100 years as they kept the streets free of carrion and rotting food. Under Tudor "vermin laws" many creatures were seen as competitors for

316-404: A dorp (village), no infrastructure (i.e. no inn, no school, no store) and contains often only one street, bearing the same name. The houses and farms of a gehucht or a buurtschap can be scattered. Though there are strong similarities between a gehucht and buurtschap , the words are not interchangeable. A gehucht officially counts as an independent place of residence (e.g. Wateren ), while

395-460: A monophyletic lineage among or next to red kites. This interpretation is problematic: mtDNA analysis is susceptible to hybridization events, the evolutionary history of the Cape Verde population is not known, and the genetic relationship of red kites is confusing, with geographical proximity being no indicator of genetic relatedness and the overall genetic similarity high, perhaps indicating

474-562: A relict species. Given the morphological distinctness of the Cape Verde birds and that the Cape Verde population was isolated from other populations of red kites, it cannot be conclusively resolved as to whether the Cape Verde population was not a distinct subspecies (as M. migrans fasciicauda ) or even a species that frequently absorbed stragglers from the migrating European populations into its gene pool. The Cape Verde population became effectively extinct since 2000, all surviving birds being hybrids with black kites . The English word "kite"

553-569: A car park at Watlington Hill on the edge of Christmas Common. The area is a good place to see red kites , which had been extinct in southern England but were successfully reintroduced in 1989. The hamlet has a dog-friendly public house and restaurant, the Fox and Hounds, controlled by W.H. Brakspear & Sons . The philologist and lexicographer William Craigie lived at Christmas Common for more than 20 years in his retirement, until his death in 1957 Hamlet (place) The word and concept of

632-426: A cluster of farms. Osada (which is typically translated as "settlement" but also can be translated as "hamlet") includes smaller settlements especially differing by type of buildings or inhabited by population connected with some place or workplace (like mill settlements, forest settlements, fishing settlements, railway settlements, former State Agricultural Farm settlements). They can be an independent settlement, or

711-459: A distinction was often that selo has a church and derevnia has not. The once common Russian word хутор ( khutor ) for the smallest type of rural settlement (arguably closest in nature to the English hamlet) is now mostly obsolete. The state of USSR wanted to have some form of basic infrastructure and central authority at each and every settlement. Obviously, this is the opposite of a hamlet -

790-455: A few houses in the rural outskirts of a village. In Ukraine, a very small village such as a hamlet usually is called a selyshche or khutir . There also existed such places like volia , sloboda , huta , buda , and others. In England , the word hamlet (having the French origin given at the top of this article) means (in current usage) simply a small settlement, maybe of

869-414: A few houses or farms, smaller than a village. However, traditionally and legally, it means a village or a town without a church, although hamlets are recognised as part of land use planning policies and administration. Historically, it may refer to a secondary settlement in a civil parish , after the main settlement (if any); such an example is the hamlet of Chipping being the secondary settlement within

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948-476: A hamlet can be traced back to Norman England , where the Old French hamelet came to apply to small human settlements. The word comes from Anglo-Norman hamelet , corresponding to Old French hamelet , the diminutive of Old French hamel meaning a little village. This, in turn, is a diminutive of Old French ham , possibly borrowed from ( West Germanic ) Franconian languages . It

1027-910: A hamlet is called a "bigha" . In state of Karnataka , a hamlet is known by different names like Palya , Hadi (Haadi), Keri , and Padi (Paadi). In olden days, the human population of hamlet was less than Halli (Village) or Ooru (Uru). But in the 20th century with tremendous increase in population, some of these hamlets have become villages, towns, cities or merged with them. All over Indonesia , hamlets are translated as "small village", desa or kampung . They are known as dusun in Central Java and East Java, banjar in Bali, jorong or kampuang in West Sumatra . The Dutch words for hamlet are gehucht or buurtschap . A gehucht or buurtschap has, compared to

1106-430: A hamlet lacks a compact core settlement and lacks a central building such as a church or inn. However, some hamlets ( Kirchwiler ) may have grown up as an unplanned settlement around a church. There is no population limit that defines a hamlet and some hamlets have a larger population than some of the smallest municipalities. Generally there are no street names in a hamlet; rather, addresses are given by hamlet name and

1185-555: A large house built here on an H-shaped plan. The Stonor family were recusants , and the house included a Roman Catholic chapel at which local Roman Catholics attended Mass . Between 1716 and 1756 John Talbot Stonor , Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District was a frequent visitor. In the 1750s the Stonors sold the house to John Tilson, who had a new house built to a compact Palladian design and re-used at least part of

1264-516: A larger entity (e.g. parish or municipality ). In Spain, the hamlet is one of the categories in the official gazetteer of population entities. In the Royal Order and Instruction of the 8 of March 1930, issued for the elaboration of the Annual gazetteer, the hamlet ( aldea ) is defined as the population entity with the smallest population and neighbourhood, usually more disseminated than

1343-455: A number of characteristics: These differences hold throughout most of the first year of a bird's life. Usually red kites first breed when they are two years old, although exceptionally they can successfully breed when they are only one year old. They are monogamous and the pair-bond in resident populations is probably maintained during the winter, particularly when the pair remain on their breeding territory. For migrant populations

1422-500: A number of incidents of red kites and other raptors being targeted by wildlife criminals. On occasion, red kites may directly steal food from humans. One such occurrence took place in Marlow , Buckinghamshire (a town near a major reintroduction site for the species in the UK in the nearby village of Stokenchurch ), in which red kites swooped down to steal sandwiches from people in one of

1501-507: A number. House numbers might start at one side of the hamlet and continue to the other side or may have no clear organization. A hamlet may form or have formed a Bürgergemeinde (legal place of citizenship regardless of where a person was born or currently lives) and may own common property for the Bürgergemeinde . In Turkey , a hamlet is known as a mezra and denotes a small satellite settlement usually consisting of

1580-461: A parent commune . In the Russian language, there are several words which mean "a hamlet", but all of them are approximately equivalent. The most common word is деревня ( derevnia , the word meant "an arable" in the past); the words село ( selo , from the Russian word селиться ( selit'tsa ), meaning "to settle") and посёлок ( posiolok ) are quite frequently used, too. Parallel to many other cultures,

1659-403: A part of another settlement, like a village. In Romania , hamlets are called cătune (singular: cătun ), and they represent villages that contain several houses at most. They are legally considered villages, and statistically, they are placed in the same category. Like villages, they do not have a separate administration, and thus are not an administrative division, but are part of

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1738-464: A place without either for being too small to meaningfully support those. Even without state pressure, once one of the neighboring khutor s got a permanent shop, school, community center (known in Russia as дом культуры, "house of culture"), maybe a medical post, others would naturally relocate closer, drawing together into one village. Thus, the diminutive form деревенька ( derevenka , tiny derevnia )

1817-773: A site in north Scotland and four Swedish and one Welsh bird in Buckinghamshire . Altogether, 93 birds of Swedish and Spanish origin were released at each of the sites. In the second stage of reintroduction in 1995 and 1996, further birds were brought from Germany to populate areas of Dumfries and Galloway . Between 2004 and 2006, 94 birds were brought from the Chilterns and introduced into the Derwent Valley in north East England. In Northern Ireland, 80 birds from wild stock in Wales were released between 2008 and 2010, and

1896-547: A specific service, such as water, sewer, or lighting to provide only that hamlet with services. A hamlet could be described as the rural or suburban equivalent of a neighborhood in a city or village. The area of a hamlet may not be exactly defined; it may be designated by the Census Bureau , or it may rely on some other form of border (such as a ZIP Code , school district or fire district for more urbanized areas; rural hamlets are typically only demarcated by speed zones on

1975-566: A stronghold for the red kite. Thirty Spanish birds were introduced into Rockingham Forest near Corby in 2000, and by 2010, the RSPB estimated that over 200 chicks had been reared from the initial release. So successful has the reintroduction been that 30 chicks have been transported from Rockingham Forest for release in Cumbria . From the Chilterns they have spread as far east as Essex and can be seen over Harlow . By 2021 they had spread along

2054-462: A village. The term Lieu-dit is also applied to hamlets, but this can also refer to uninhabited localities. During the 18th century, it was fashionable for rich or noble people to create their own hameau in their gardens . This was a group of houses or farms with rustic appearance, but in fact very comfortable. The best known are the Hameau de la Reine built by the queen Marie-Antoinette in

2133-504: A white ground and red-brown spots. The average size is 57 mm × 45 mm (2.2 in × 1.8 in) with a calculated weight of 63 g (2.2 oz). In Britain and central Europe, laying begins at the end of March but in the Mediterranean area laying begins in early March. The eggs are mainly incubated by the female, but the male will relieve her for short periods while she feeds. The male will also bring food for

2212-538: Is ferm toun , used in the specific case of a farm settlement, including outbuildings and agricultural workers' homes. The term hamlet was used in Wales to denote a geographical subdivision of a parish (which might or might not contain a settlement). Elsewhere, mostly in England, these subdivisions were called "townships" or "tithings". The Welsh word for "hamlet" is pentrefan (also pentrefyn ). Both these words are diminutives of pentref ("village") with

2291-975: Is 25 years and 8 months for a ringed bird in Germany. The BTO longevity record for Britain and Ireland is also 25 years and 8 months for a bird found dead in Buckinghamshire in 2018. In 2023, one of the first red kites reintroduced to the UK was found injured in Oxfordshire and later died, aged 29. The red kites are generalist scavengers and predators. Their diet consists mainly of carrions of large domestic animals such as sheep and pigs , roadkills, and shored fish. They also take small mammals such as mice , voles , shrews , stoats , young hares and rabbits . Live birds are also taken, especially young or wounded, such as crows , doves , starlings , thrushes , larks , gulls , and waterfowls . Occasionally reptiles and amphibians are taken and invertebrates such as earthworms form an important part of

2370-508: Is a medium-large bird of prey in the family Accipitridae , which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as eagles , buzzards , and harriers . The species currently breeds only in Europe, though it formerly also bred in west Asia and northwest Africa . Historically, it was only resident in the milder parts of its range in western Europe and northwestern Africa, whereas all or most red kites in northern mainland Europe wintered to

2449-520: Is also used for designating small groups of rural dwellings or farmhouses. A hamlet in Spain is a human settlement, usually located in rural areas, and typically smaller in size and population than a village (called in Spain, pueblo Spanish: [ˈpweβlo] ). The hamlet is a common territorial organisation in the North West of Spain ( Asturias , Cantabria and Galicia ) dependent on

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2528-513: Is from the Old English cyta which is of unknown origin. A kite is mentioned by Geoffrey Chaucer in his Knight's Tale . The early 15th century Hengwrt manuscript contains the lines: "Ther cam a kyte, whil þt they were so wrothe That bar awey the boon bitwix hem bothe." The first recorded use of the word "kite" for a toy that is attached to a length of string and flown in the air dates from

2607-509: Is in widespread, albeit unofficial, use to denote such settlements, which mostly possess the amenities of a village yet the size of hamlet. In Spain , a hamlet is called lugar , aldea or cortijada ( Spanish: [koɾtiˈxaða] ). The word comes from the Spanish term cortijo («estate»). In the South of Spain, the term caserío ( Spanish: [kaseˈɾi.o] )

2686-524: Is of uncertain origin. It is variously ascribed to a 1643 Christmas Day truce between combatants in the English Civil War , local holly tree coppices , or the Christmas family, which had local connections. Watlington Park is a private park and country house about 3 ⁄ 4 mile (1.2 km) southwest of Christmas Common. In 1675 Thomas Stonor, 3rd Baron Camoys of Stonor Park had

2765-501: Is part of a larger municipality. In different states of India , there are different words for hamlet. In Haryana and Rajasthan , it is called " dhani " ( Hindi : ढाणी ḍhāṇī ) or "Thok" . In Gujarat , a hamlet is called a "nesada" , which are more prevalent in the Gir forest . In Maharashtra , it is called a "pada" . In southern Bihar, especially in the Magadh division ,

2844-442: Is related to the modern French hameau , Dutch heem , Frisian hiem , German Heim , Old English hām , and Modern English home . In Afghanistan , the counterpart of the hamlet is the qala ( Dari : قلعه, Pashto : کلي) meaning "fort" or "hamlet". The Afghan qala is a fortified group of houses, generally with its own community building such as a mosque, but without its own marketplace. The qala

2923-454: Is the smallest type of settlement in Afghan society, outsized by the village ( Dari / Pashto : ده), which is larger and includes a commercial area. In Canada's three territories , hamlets are officially designated municipalities . As of January 1, 2010: In Canada's provinces, hamlets are usually small unincorporated communities within a larger municipality (similar to civil townships in

3002-735: The Kullaberg Nature Preserve near Mölle . In Switzerland, they are a common sight in all rural areas, excluding the Alps and its foothills. Some of the best places to see them in the United Kingdom are Gigrin Farm near Rhayader , mid Wales , where hundreds are fed by the local farmer as a tourist attraction, a Red Kite Feeding Station at Llanddeusant in the Brecon Beacons , visited daily by over 50 birds, and

3081-518: The Town of Hempstead , with a population of over 50,000, are more populous than some incorporated cities in the state. In Oregon , specifically in Clackamas County , a hamlet is a form of local government for small communities that allows the citizens therein to organize and co-ordinate community activities. Hamlets do not provide services, such as utilities or fire protection, and do not have

3160-401: The lugar , though its buildings can be also organised in streets and plazas. In the four national languages, hamlets are known as Weiler (German), hameaux (French), frazioni (Italian) and fracziun ( Romansh ). A hamlet is always part of a larger municipality or may be shared between two municipalities. The difference between a hamlet and a village is that typically

3239-548: The 10,000-person threshold that can choose to incorporate as a city in Alberta. As such, these two hamlets have been further designated by the Province of Alberta as urban service areas . An urban service area is recognized as equivalent to a city for the purposes of provincial and federal program delivery and grant eligibility. A hamlet, French: hameau , is a group of rural dwellings, usually too small to be considered

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3318-445: The 17th century. Red kites are 60 to 70 cm (24 to 28 in) long with a 175–195 cm (69–77 in) wingspan; males weigh 800–1,200 g (28–42 oz), and females 1,000–1,300 g (35–46 oz). It is an elegant bird, soaring on long wings held at a dihedral , and long forked tail, twisting as it changes direction. The body, upper tail and wing coverts are rufous . The white primary flight feathers contrast with

3397-527: The 19th century or earlier; the only non-European breeding population in recent decades was in Morocco where the last known pair was in 2004. Today it breeds from Portugal and Spain, through the central part of the continent east to European Russia , north to southern Scandinavia , Latvia and the United Kingdom, and south to southern Italy; few if any breeders remain in Balkan . Most red kites that breed in

3476-643: The Bwlch Nant yr Arian forest visitor centre in Ceredigion where the rare leucistic variant can be seen. In England, the Oxfordshire part of the Chilterns has many red kites, especially near Henley-on-Thames and Watlington , where they were introduced on John Paul Getty 's estate. Red Kites are also becoming common in Buckinghamshire , often being seen near Stokenchurch , where a population

3555-610: The Environment, Heritage and Local Government Dick Roche announced an agreement to bring at least 100 birds from Wales to restock the population as part of a five-year programme in the Wicklow Mountains , similar to the earlier golden eagle reintroduction programme. On 19 July 2007, the first 30 red kites were released in County Wicklow . On 22 May 2010, two newly hatched red kite chicks were discovered in

3634-948: The M4 as far as the Cotswold Edge overlooking the Severn near Bristol. A sighting of the first red kite in London for 150 years was reported in The Independent newspaper in January 2006 and in June of that year, the UK-based Northern Kites Project reported that kites had bred in the Derwent Valley in and around Rowlands Gill , Tyne and Wear for the first time since the re-introduction. In 1999,

3713-600: The UK and the final re-introduction phase in England. The stated aims of the Grizedale project were: As of July 2011, non-breeding birds are regularly seen in all parts of Britain, and the number of breeding pairs is too large for the RSPB to continue to survey them on an annual basis. Red kites were extinct in Ireland by the middle 19th century due to persecution, poisoning and woodland clearance. In May 2007, Minister for

3792-483: The United States), such as many communities within the single-tier municipalities of Ontario , Alberta 's specialized and rural municipalities, and Saskatchewan 's rural municipalities. Canada's two largest hamlets— Fort McMurray (formerly incorporated as a city) and Sherwood Park —are located in Alberta. They each have populations, within their main urban area, in excess of 60,000—well in excess of

3871-544: The Wicklow Mountains, bringing the number of chicks hatched since reintroduction to seven. The following figures (mostly estimates) have been collated from various sources. They cover most of the countries in which red kites are believed to have bred. One of the best places to see the red kite in Scandinavia is Scania in southern Sweden. It may be observed in one of its breeding locations such as

3950-495: The authority to levy taxes or fees. There are four hamlets in Oregon: Beavercreek , Mulino , Molalla Prairie , and Stafford . In Vietnam , a hamlet ( xóm , ấp ) is the smallest unofficial administrative unit. It is a subdivision of a commune or township ( xã ). Red Kite Falco milvus Linnaeus, 1758 Milvus regalis ( Pall. , 1811) The red kite ( Milvus milvus )

4029-597: The black kite in captivity where both species were kept together, and in the wild on the Cape Verde Islands and infrequently in other places. The red kites on the Cape Verde Islands are (or rather were) quite distinct in morphology , being somewhat intermediate with black kites. The question whether the Cape Verde kite should be considered a distinct species ( Milvus fasciicauda ) or a red kite subspecies has not been settled. A mitochondrial DNA study on museum specimens suggested that Cape Verde birds did not form

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4108-493: The black wing tips and dark secondaries. Apart from the weight difference, the sexes are similar, but juveniles have a buff breast and belly. Its call is a thin piping sound, similar to but less mewling than the common buzzard . There is a rare white leucistic form accounting for approximately 1% of hatchlings in the Welsh population, but this variation confers a disadvantage in the survival stakes. Adults differ from juveniles in

4187-525: The civil parish of Buckland . Hamlets may have been formed around a single source of economic activity such as a farm, mill, mine or harbour that employed its working population. Some hamlets may be the result of the depopulation of a village ; examples of such a hamlet are Graby and Shapwick . Because of the hilly topography of the parish, the village of Clent , situated on the Clent Hills , consists of five distinct hamlets. In Northern Ireland ,

4266-572: The common Irish place name element baile is sometimes considered equivalent to the term hamlet in English, although baile would actually have referred to what is known in English today as a townland : that is to say, a geographical locality rather than a small village. In the Scottish Highlands , the term clachan , of Gaelic derivation, may be preferred to the term hamlet . Also found in Scotland more generally

4345-512: The diet, especially in spring . In some parts of the United Kingdom, red kites are also deliberately fed in domestic gardens , explaining the presence of red kites in urban areas. Here, up to 5% of householders have provided supplementary food for red kites, with chicken the predominant meat provided. As scavengers, red kites are particularly susceptible to poisoning. Illegal poison baits set for foxes or crows are indiscriminate and kill protected birds and other animals. There have also been

4424-419: The female. Incubation starts as soon as the first egg is laid. Each egg hatches after 31 to 32 days but as they hatch asynchronously a clutch of three eggs requires 38 days of incubation. The chicks are cared for by both parents. The female broods them for the first 14 days while the male brings food to the nest which the female feeds to the chicks. Later both parents bring items of food which are placed in

4503-513: The female. The nest is lined with grass and sometimes also with sheep's wool. Unlike the black kite, no greenery is added to the nest. Both sexes continue to add material to the nest during the incubation and nestling periods. Nests vary greatly in size and can become large when the same nest is occupied for several seasons. The eggs are laid at three-day intervals. The clutch is usually between one and three eggs but four and even five eggs have occasionally been recorded. The eggs are non-glossy with

4582-496: The fidelity to a particular nesting site means that the pair-bond is likely to be renewed each breeding season. The nest is normally placed in a fork of a large hardwood tree at a height of between 12 and 15 m (39 and 49 ft) above the ground. A pair will sometimes use a nest from the previous year and can occasionally occupy an old nest of the common buzzard . The nest is built by both sexes. The male brings dead twigs 30–50 cm (12–20 in) in length which are placed by

4661-581: The first successful breeding was recorded in 2010. The reintroductions in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty have been a success. Between 1989 and 1993, 90 birds were released there and by 2002, 139 pairs were breeding. They can commonly be seen taking advantage of thermals from the M40 motorway . Another successful reintroduction has been in Northamptonshire , which has become

4740-588: The last two countries, those populations remain well below their historical peaks. In contrast, red kite populations are increasing in parts of northern Europe, such as Denmark, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The red kite is the official landscape bird of the Swedish province of Scania , and depicted on the coat of arms of the municipality of Tomelilla . In the United Kingdom, red kites were ubiquitous scavengers that lived on carrion and rubbish. Shakespeare's King Lear describes his daughter Goneril as

4819-500: The line of the Chilterns and is now a long-distance footpath. The Oxfordshire Way long-distance footpath passes through Christmas Common on its route between Bourton-on-the-Water and Henley-on-Thames , and crosses the Icknield Way 1 mile (1.6 km) downhill from the village. The surrounding beech woods and local rights of way are popular with walkers, cyclists, horse riders and birdwatchers. The National Trust provides

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4898-574: The loose meaning of "small village". In Mississippi , a 2009 state law (§ 17-27-5) set aside the term "municipal historical hamlet" to designate any former city, town, or village with a current population of less than 600 inhabitants that lost its charter before 1945. The first such designation was applied to Bogue Chitto, Lincoln County . In New York, hamlets are unincorporated settlements within towns . Hamlets are not legal entities and have no local government or official boundaries. Their approximate locations will often be noted on road signs, however,

4977-489: The modernist Tower House for himself in a wood away from the hamlet. Christmas Common has never been populous. The 1811 census named the hamlet as a liberty and reported that it had only six inhabited houses. The Church of England parish church of the Nativity was designed by the architect Walter Cave . It was built in 1889 as a chapel of ease to save Anglican residents from travelling 2 miles (3 km) downhill to

5056-501: The mountains) or scattered (more often in the plains). In North West Germany, a group of scattered farms is called Bauerschaft . In a Weiler, there are no street names, the houses are just numbered. There is no legal definition of a hamlet in Germany. In Bavaria, like in Austria, a Weiler is defined as a settlement with 3 to 9 dwellings, from 10 houses it is called a village. A hamlet does not usually form its own administrative unit, but

5135-437: The nest to allow the chicks to feed themselves. The nestlings begin climbing onto branches around their nest from 45 days but they rarely fledge before 48–50 days and sometimes not until they are 60–70 days of age. The young spend a further 15–20 days in the neighbourhood of the nest being fed by their parents. Only a single brood is raised each year but if the eggs are lost the female will relay. The maximum age recorded

5214-444: The northeast, but seem to be stable in southwest and central France and Corsica . Populations elsewhere are stable or undergoing increases. In Sweden, the species has increased from 30 to 50 pairs in the 1970s to 1,200 breeding pairs in 2003 and has continued growing. In Switzerland, populations have been increasing since the 1990s. Red kites have declined in their traditional strongholds of Spain, France and Germany; while now stable in

5293-422: The northern European mainland used to move south or west in winter, typically wintering in Spain and other parts of western Europe with a mild climate, as well as northwestern Africa (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) and Turkey. In recent decades, an increasing number of red kites from the northern European mainland have stayed in the region year-round. The populations in Germany (which alone is home to almost half of

5372-580: The northern foothills of the Harz Mountains (the most densely populated part of its range) suffered an estimated 50% decline from 1991 to 2001. In Spain, the species showed an overall decline in breeding population of up to 43% for the period 1994 to 2001–02, and surveys of wintering birds in 2003–04 suggest a similarly large decline in core wintering areas. The Balearic Islands population has declined from 41 to 47 breeding pairs in 1993 to just 10 in 2003. In France, breeding populations have decreased in

5451-560: The older house as servants' quarters. Late in the 19th and early in the 20th century, subsequent owners altered and enlarged the Tilson house. Oliver Brett , later Viscount Esher , bought Watlington Park in 1921 and continued enlarging and modernising it. In 1954 his successor Major Lionel Brett , an architect, demolished all the extensions and the remains of the 17th century Stonor house and added pedimented pavilions of his own design. In 1967 Lionel Brett, by now 4th Viscount Esher, built

5530-476: The parish church, St Leonard's in Watlington . It was made redundant in the 20th century and is now a private house. The Chilterns are an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty . The scarp slope of the Chilterns faces northwest from the hamlet steeply downhill towards Watlington. Much of the area between Christmas Common and Watlington is designated as the Watlington and Pyrton Hills Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The ancient Icknield Way follows

5609-513: The park of the Château de Versailles , and the Hameau de Chantilly built by Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé in Chantilly, Oise . The German word for hamlet is Weiler ( German: [ˈva͡ɪlɐ] ). A Weiler has, compared to a Dorf (village), no infrastructure (i.e. no inn, no school, no store, no church). The houses and farms of a Weiler can be grouped (in the hills and

5688-541: The produce of the countryside and bounties were paid by the parish for their carcasses. By the 20th century, the breeding population was restricted to a handful of pairs in South Wales , but recently the Welsh population has been supplemented by re-introductions in England and Scotland. In 2004, from 375 occupied territories identified, at least 216 pairs were thought to have hatched eggs and 200 pairs reared at least 286 young. In 1989, six Swedish birds were released at

5767-804: The red kite was named 'Bird of the Century' by the British Trust for Ornithology . According to the Welsh Kite Trust, it has been voted "Wales's favourite bird". In June 2010, the Forestry Commission North West England announced a three-year project to release 90 red kites in Grizedale Forest , Cumbria under a special licence issued by Natural England . The Grizedale programme was the ninth reintroduction of red kites into different regions of

5846-431: The roads serving them). Others, such as Forestville, New York , will be the remnants of former villages, with borders coextant with the previously defined borders of the defunct or dissolved village. Some hamlets proximate to urban areas are sometimes continuous with their cities and appear to be neighborhoods, but they still are under the jurisdiction of the town. Some localities designated as hamlets, such as Levittown in

5925-412: The south and west, some also reaching western Asia, but an increasing number of northern birds now remain in that region year-round. Vagrants have reached north to Finland and south to Israel , Libya and Gambia . The red kite was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Falco milvus . The word milvus

6004-684: The town's parks. In another incident, a red kite was reported as having stolen a wasabi-coated pea from a spectator at a cricket match in Wormsley, Buckinghamshire. Red kites inhabit broadleaf woodlands, pastures, mixed farmland, valleys and wetland edges, up to at least 1,600 metres (5,200 ft) elevation. They are native to the western Palearctic , with all of the currently known 32,200–37,700 breeding pairs being in Europe. There also used to be breeding populations in western Asia (northern Iran, Syria and Turkey) and northwestern Africa (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia), but most of these were extirpated in

6083-480: The wintering ranges in France and Spain, and changes in agricultural practices causing a reduction in food resources. Other threats include electrocution, hunting and trapping, deforestation, egg-collection (on a local scale) and possibly competition with the generally more successful black kite M. migrans . German populations declined by 25%–30% between 1991 and 1997, but have remained stable since. The populations of

6162-429: The world's breeding pairs), France and Spain declined between 1990 and 2000, and overall the species declined by almost 20% over those ten years. Populations in Germany and France have subsequently stabilised, and because of growth in other countries, the overall population is now increasing. The main threats to red kites are poisoning, through illegal direct poisoning and indirect poisoning from pesticides, particularly in

6241-507: Was the Latin name for the bird. In 1799 the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède moved the species to the genus Milvus creating the tautonym . Two subspecies are recognised: The subspecies M. m. fasciicauda is almost certainly extinct. The genus Milvus contains two other species: the black kite ( M. migrans ) and the yellow-billed kite ( M. aegyptius ). The red kite has been known to successfully hybridize with

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