The American Kestrel
By Tait Johansson
 One of the commoner fall migrant raptors in
eastern North America is the American Kestrel (Falco sparverius).
This brightly-colored small falcon is now almost gone from Westchester and
Putnam counties as a breeder, but continues to migrate through our area in
fairly good numbers. It is often seen hovering above open fields as it hunts.
Its European counterpart, the Eurasian Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), is
called the “windhover” in parts of Britain because of this habit.
The kestrel is our smallest diurnal raptor,
roughly the size of a Blue Jay. The intricately patterned plumage of male and
female kestrels is markedly different. Female kestrels average slightly larger
than males. The back, tail and upper surfaces of the wings are rufous with thin
horizontal black barring. The underparts are white, with vertical, smudgy rufous
streaking on the breast and belly. The head has a dark gray cap, with two
vertical gray stripes pointing down from the cap onto the side of the head, and
a single gray spot on the nape of the neck, all against a white background. The
male shares the female’s barred rufous pattern on his back, but his wings are
slate-gray, and the tail is all rufous, with the exception of a thick black band
at the very end of the tail, and the outermost tail feathers are white. The
male’s underparts are a very light tan, broken up by scattered gray spotting,
except for the undertail coverts, which are pure white. The male’s head pattern
has the same two vertical stripes and single spot, but they are a darker gray,
almost black, and his gray cap is adorned with a single rufous spot on the very
top of the head.
A few pairs of this beautiful bird still nest in
the area, preferring large open fields with dead trees or other suitable sources
of cavities for nesting, such as old buildings. Like almost all
grassland-inhabiting birds in the Northeast, kestrels have declined due to
reforestation and the loss of open fields to development. The cutting of dead
trees and competition for scarce nest sites with starlings also pose problems.
Kestrels are largely insectivorous in the warmer
months, and the
peak of their migration in September seems to be timed to coincide
with the peak of dragonfly migration, providing these birds with
an abundant source of food as they make their way south to the
southern U.S. and Mexico to spend the winter.
Photo Courtesy of and Copyright © by Rick Paris
rick@rickparis.com
www.rickparis.com
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