“American Kestrel, Small But Fierce”

We can take a summer walk around an urban neighborhood (including my own) to meet these birds: the American Kestrels. They are the smallest of the North American falcons, but they are fierce! They are also 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. Scan fence posts, utility lines, and telephone poles, particularly when driving through farmland. Or, you may just hear their “klee! klee! klee!” and find them overhead or flying by.

Fast facts:

• 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.

 

• 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 American 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.

 

• 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.

 

• Kestrels can hover in the wind (wind hovering), a technique where they face into the wind and fly at the same speed as the wind, allowing the air moving over their wings to provide the necessary lift to stay stationary over a point on the ground. This method uses the wind’s energy to maintain position, enabling them to scan for prey

Sources: Audubon Society and Cornell Lab of Ornithology

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