American Kestrel Gallery

Falco sparverius

eBird describes the American Kestrel as follows:  Petite falcon roughly the same size as Mourning Dove, but with a larger head and wider tail. In flight, note long, narrow wings and square-tipped tail. Often seen perched on telephone wires, along roadsides, in open country with short vegetation and few trees. From a perch or hovering, they usually drop to the ground to snatch small mammals and insects. Nests in cavities. Widespread across the Americas.  All About Birds adds this descriptive information for the American Kestrel:  North America’s littlest falcon, the American Kestrel packs a predator’s fierce intensity into its small body. It’s one of the most colorful of all raptors: the male’s slate-blue head and wings contrast elegantly with his rusty-red back and tail; the female has the same warm reddish on her wings, back, and tail. Hunting for insects and other small prey in open territory, kestrels perch on wires or poles, or hover facing into the wind, flapping and adjusting their long tails to stay in place. Kestrels are declining in parts of their range; you can help them by putting up nest boxes.

I saw my first American Kestrel quite unexpectedly on the morning of October 9, 2020, as I drove down the road to my house.  From the roadway I saw a bird perched on a powerline that appeared to have a touch of color and a shape I did not recognize as a bird I had seen along that road (which I drive or walk on almost every day) before.  I pulled out my binoculars and sure enough, it was an American Kestrel (male).  The bird and I hop-scotched down the road — at one point he flew to a field and picked something up which he took back up to the power line and ate.  It was a wonderful few minutes of watching a beautiful bird and I was so happy to add it to my life list!

The American Kestrel I saw on the morning of 10-9-20 was a male, as evidenced by the blue-gray wings and the markings on the boldly patterned head.
American Kestrel eating one of the critters he caught. October 9, 2020.

The day after I spotted my first American Kestrel, I wanted to see if he would be at the same location so I walked down Lakeview Trail about 9:00 a.m.  Sure enough, I spotted him again, on the telephone pole just past Berridge’s fence.  As I slowly attempted to get closer, he flew and landed very far from the road high up in a tree, he stayed there about 5 minutes and I did not see him again.  Here is my ebird checklist from that morning.  

My second sighting of the American Kestrel on the morning of October 10, 2020 (around 9 a.m. on Lakeview Trail)


“Cool Facts” about the American Kestrel from All About Birds…

  • Sports fans in some cities get an extra show during night games: kestrels perching on light standards or foul poles, tracking moths and other insects in the powerful stadium light beams and catching these snacks on the wing. Some of their hunting flights have even made it onto TV sports coverage.
  • When nature calls, nestling kestrels back up, raise their tails, and squirt feces onto the walls of the nest cavity. The feces dry on the cavity walls and stay off the nestlings. The nest gets to be a smelly place, with feces on the walls and uneaten parts of small animals on the floor.
  • It can be tough being one of the smallest birds of prey. Despite their fierce lifestyle, American Kestrels end up as prey for larger birds such as Northern Goshawks, Red-tailed Hawks, Barn Owls, American Crows, and Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawks, as well as rat snakes, corn snakes, and even fire ants.
  • In winter in many southern parts of the range, female and male American Kestrels use different habitats. Females use the typical open habitat, and males use areas with more trees. This situation appears to be the result of the females migrating south first and establishing winter territories, leaving males to the more wooded areas.
  • Unlike humans, birds can see ultraviolet light. This enables kestrels to make out the trails of urine that voles, a common prey mammal, leave as they run along the ground. Like neon diner signs, these bright paths may highlight the way to a meal—as has been observed in the Eurasian Kestrel, a close relative.
  • Kestrels hide surplus kills in grass clumps, tree roots, bushes, fence posts, tree limbs, and cavities, to save the food for lean times or to hide it from thieves.
  • The oldest American Kestrel was a male and at least 14 years, 8 months old when he was found in Utah in 2001. He had been banded in the same state in 1987.