RED kites in the Chilterns are now so numerous that conservationists no longer monitor their numbers.

Steve Rodrick, Chilterns AONB Board chief officer, said that 15 years after the birds had been introduced from Spain their numbers had rocketed to about 1,000.

He said: "That's an amazing success story."

Kites were widespread and common in the UK until the 19th Century, but were then wiped out, apart from a small population in Wales, because of persecution.

People thought they killed game birds, and rewards were given for every dead bird brought in.

In fact kites feed on carrion, small mammals like voles and insects like beetles.

Kites were reintroduced to the Chilterns in 1989 by the RSPB and English Nature.

Now these soaring numbers mean that some of the Chiltern chicks have been used to establish kite populations elsewhere in the country, including Yorkshire, Gateshead, the Midlands, Inverness, Stirling and Dumfries.

The handsome russet, gray and red, friendly birds can be seen in large groups wheeling low in the sky over many Chiltern hills and valleys and are enormously popular with most Buckinghamshire people.

But Mr Rodrick warned people not to put out food for them.

He said: "Things like chicken carcasses could be unhealthy.

"We want the birds to be able to fend for themselves."

Numbers of another big bird, the buzzard, are also on the increase in the Chilterns. Mr Rodrick said buzzards had also been persecuted and were rare here, but he estimated there were now about a dozen, compared to one or two five years ago.

He said the law had tightened and there was a more enlightened attitude from gamekeepers.