As in previous years, June 2026 marked the arrival at the Aspromonte National Park’s aviaries of a first group of young red kites from donor countries, which after a period of acclimatization will be released into the wild in early July.
Currently, there are twelve birds awaiting their first flight: two were collected from nests in Corsica (France) and ten from nests in the Canton of Fribourg (Switzerland). At the end of July, another group of five young birds of prey in this case, born in captivity will arrive from Aragon (Spain).
Experts from Biodiversità sas, Anna Cenerini and Guido Ceccolini, assisted the Aspromonte National Park Authority with the authorization procedures and the organization of the transfers.
In Corsica, all administrative and fieldwork activities were carried out by the Conservatoire d’Espaces Naturels de Corse (CEN Corse), coordinated by Carole Attié. Nest monitoring and animal collection were handled by Ludovic Lepori, Sébastien Cart, and Gabin Tijou, while animal management was carried out with the support of Cécile Jolin.
On June 10, the two red kites were transported by a light aircraft from Bastia Airport to the AliScarlino airfield (GR) on the Maremma coast, with the assistance of pilot Matteo Casuccio. From there, they were taken to the Wildlife Recovery Center at the Lago di Vico Reserve (VT) for a restorative stopover made possible by the invaluable hospitality and assistance of the center’s staff, coordinated by Giampiero Tirone.
In the Canton of Fribourg, the operations manager was, as always, biologist Adrian Aebischer, who also oversaw the search for and inspection of the nests alongside Christian Grand and Pascal Grand, climbers who then carried out the challenging retrieval of the young birds. Paul Ducry, a drone pilot, assisted with the nest inspections.
Caroline Chatton, director of the “Rita Ruch” Rehabilitation Center in Fribourg, made a valuable contribution by caring for the young red kites, together with her team, prior to their transfer to Italy. Carolina Feugère, a veterinarian, checked the animals' health and implanted identification microchips.
The transfer from Switzerland began on June 12 and was carried out by Luca Pelle, the project coordinator for the Aspromonte National Park. The journey included a stop in Chiasso to complete customs formalities and a stop at the CRAS Lago di Vico, where the birds joined their conspecifics that had already arrived from Corsica.
On June 13, all the red kites arrived at the Aspromonte National Park aviaries, where they will remain until their release into the wild, scheduled for the second week of July.
