The conservation status of this species has looked promising in recent years. Assessments made between 2005 and 2019 classified red kites as "near threatened" on the IUCN Red List, a global system for classifying each species' extinction risk. Population growth throughout large swathes of the red kite's range meant that the species was bumped up to "least concern" in 2020.

The U.K.'s growing population of red kites is largely a result of their reintroduction to parts of England and Scotland beginning in 1989. This is often hailed as a conservation success story. And rightly so. The number of red kites has soared (pun intended) by a whopping 1,935% between 1995 and 2020 across the U.K.

While things are generally looking up for the species at a global level, populations in some countries, including Spain, France, Portugal and Slovakia are declining. Some of the causes of these declines have existed for centuries, such as hunting.

But a new study has revealed how climate change poses a hidden threat by permanently damaging the development of chicks born during droughts. This could undermine the recovery of the species and is a sobering reminder of the challenges that a warming world will confront species with, even those which seem to be doing well for the time being.