American Kestrel

American Kestrel, adult male

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American Kestrel, adult female

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

Perhaps the most colorful raptor in the world, the American Kestrel is the most common falcon in North America. It is found from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, and in towns as well as wild lands.

Cool Facts

• Although hover-hunting is conspicuous, this foraging method actually is used rather infrequently. It is used most often when suitable perches are not available, or when winds are strong enough to create updrafts favorable to hovering.

• In winter in many southern parts of the range, female and male American Kestrels use different habitats. The female uses the preferred more open habitat, and the male uses areas with more trees. This situation appears to be the result of the females migrating south first and establishing winter territories. The males then are forced into the less preferred areas.

• 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.

Description

• Size: 22-31 cm (9-12 in)
• Wingspan: 51-61 cm (20-24 in)
• Weight: 80-165 g (2.82-5.82 ounces)

• Small hawk.
• Rufous back and tail.
• Two dark mustache marks on face.

• Short curved bill with "tooth" on upper mandible.
• Long pointed wings.
• Long tail.
• Legs and toes rather short.
• "Eye spots" on back of head.
• Streaked or spotted on chest.

Sex Differences

Male has blue-gray wings and a lightly spotted chest and belly. The larger female has rufous wings barred with black, and streaking on the chest.

Male

Wings blue-gray with black spots. Tail rufous on back with a broad black subterminal band and a white or rufous tip. Tail white underneath with a few incomplete black bars. Back and rump orange to rufous, with a variable amount of black barring. Underparts pale buff to orange, with variable amount of black spotting, especially along sides. Crown blue-gray with some orange. Buffy spots with dark centers on either side of nape (back of head), making "eyespots" visible from behind.

Legs pale yellow to orange-yellow.

Female

Wings rufous barred with black. Tail rufous with black bands. Underparts creamy to buff, heavily streaked with brown. Back rufous with heavy dark barring. Crown gray. Legs yellow.

Immature

Juveniles similar to adults.

Similar Species

• Merlin is slightly larger, lacks well defined face stripes, has dark tail with several light bands, and lacks rufous on back.

Sound

Loud series of "klee-klee-klee" notes when excited.

»listen to songs of this species

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Range

Range Map

© 2003 Cornell Lab of Ornithology

About the map

Summer Range

Breeds from Alaska across most of Canada and the United States into Central and South America.

Winter Range

Winters in southern portion of breeding range from Canadian border and northern Nebraska and Ohio southward.

Habitat

Breeds in a variety of open habitats, including meadows, grasslands, deserts, parkland, agricultural fields, urban and suburban areas.

Food

Large insects, small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and birds.

Behavior

Foraging

Watches for prey from tall perches, such as trees and telephone poles. Also hovers and drops on prey.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Nests in cavities in trees, in buildings, and in nest boxes. No material added to nest hole.

Egg Description

White to yellowish with scattered small dark spots.

Clutch Size

Usually 4-5 eggs. Range: 1-7.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless with sparse white down.

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Conservation Status

Increased greatly with historical deforestation of North America. No significant trend across North America, but some local increases and decreases.

Other Names

Crécerelle d'Amérique (French)
Cernícalo chitero (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

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Smallwood, J. A., and D. M. Bird. 2002. American Kestrel (Falco sparverius). In The Birds of North America, No. 602 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.

 

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