The village I live in, Cilycwm, has one pub called the Neuadd Fawr Arms. (Neuadd Fawr means big hall and refers to the old hall up the road which is now in ruins) I got talking to two of our neighbours there, both fringe members of the farming community and both interested in birds and wildlife. The topic was crows, and Aled asserted that the Red Kites are beneficial to the farmers because they keep the crows off the lambs. Crows and Ravens are well know for their gruesome habit of helping themselves to those tasty morsels, the eyes, whenever a sheep or lamb is down or helpless.
What's interesting about this is that Kites are not very powerful predators - they do not have strong talons or powerful beaks, whereas Ravens have virtual pickaxes on their heads. Indeed it is claimed that the kites need foxes or Ravens to open up the carcase before they can feed, so it wouldn't seem to make much sense to chase the corvids away.
Not only do the top corvids have powerful beaks, but Ravens are around 1.3 kilos in weight, the same as the largest female kite - males weighing in at around 1kilo. Kites do have a bigger wingspan though, and if you go to a kite feeding station it is clear that they are the top scavenger - the crows and magpies don't get a look in. (I've not seen Ravens at a feeding station, perhaps because they are naturally more afraid of humans).
If Aled is right, then the only thing I can think of to account for this is that kites look like eagles, and we can assume that, like most birds, corvids will have a natural fear of eagles.
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