Are they endangered?No, they are not endangered worldwide. (IUCN Red list: Least
concern)
What are their past/present problems?
The habitat where these birds live is being taken away for
development. Their enemies are Cooper’s Hawks. European
Starlings move in and take the same nests that the American
Kestrel would take.
What do they look like? American
Kestrels are very colorful birds. The male and female
look different. They have rusty brown backs with black
spots. The male wings are blue-grey with black
spots and the
female has
brownish wings with black stripes. Their eyes and above
their
beaks
(cere) are yellow. They have a black line before and below
their eye. Their tails have rusty brown, black, and white bands
on the feathers. They have a blue-gray band around their heads.
How big are they? They are about 1 foot long. If they spread their wings out,
they would be about 2 feet wide.
How many eggs do they lay? Females lay between 4 and 6 white or light beige eggs once a
year. The eggs hatch in a month.
How long do the
fledglings stay in the nest?
They nest in tree holes, small openings in house and building
walls and eaves, nesting boxes. They don’t put nesting sticks,
twigs, or leaves in the nest but keep it as they found it. The
young birds leave the nest in about 30-31 days.
When do they hunt?
They hunt during the day. (diurnal)
What do they eat?
Kestrels like to eat frogs, bats, small birds (sparrows), and
Where do they live? They live in South America, the Caribbean Islands, Central
America, Canada, the United States, Mexico and the Virgin
Islands.
What kind of place do
they like to live in? They like to live around fields, farms, deserts, towns, and open
forests.
Interesting facts:
They
used to be called the Sparrow Hawk because they like to
eat sparrows.
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Works Cited:
Alsop,
Fred. Birds of North America. New York: DK Publishing,
2001.
