RAF Benson safety fears over red kite feeding

Red kites were reintroduced to Oxfordshire in the 1990s

People have been told not to feed red kites over fears the birds could put RAF pilots at risk in Oxfordshire.

Station flight safety officer Flt Lt Steve Bishop said about 20 of the birds were regularly congregating around the RAF Benson airbase.

He said he believed the kites may have been attracted by scraps of meat left by people living nearby.

He added a bird hitting a helicopter windscreen could crack it and be "potentially catastrophic" for pilots.

Red kites were formerly widespread and common in the UK, but human persecution led to their extinction in England by the end of the 19th Century.

The birds were reintroduced to Oxfordshire and the Chilterns in the 1990s .

Wildlife experts now believed there are hundreds of breeding pairs in the Oxfordshire area.