Kestrel common: description, habitat and lifestyle

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:48

A very common bird of prey, at first glance resembling a dove - the kestrel falcon. Ornithologists explain the name like this. Since ancient times, hunting has been popular in Russia, in which gyrfalcons, saker falcons or sparrowhawks have always participated. The ancient hunters tried to teach this bird too, but all in vain.

That's why this falcon does not catch prey in flight, unlike other predators of the sky, it was called an empty, useless bird - a kestrel. The ornithological name of the bird is tinnunculus. She got it because of her voice. Singing resembles the sound "tee-tee-tee." Height and coloring depend on the situation. The Latin name in translation means "ringing" or "sounding".

Kestrel falcon (steppe, common): description

Steppe kestrel and common kestrel are very similar to each other. The steppe falcon is much smaller, but at the same time much more beautiful. Photographers prefer to shoot this bird in flight, especially the male. He has incomparable bright wings. Steppe kestrel bright red, without anyor spots and motley dots. The head is bluish-gray shades, and on the wedge-shaped tail there is a black border. A striking difference between the steppe falcon is white claws. The common kestrel can hang in the sky for a long time. But for this, it constantly flutters its wings. And the steppe falcon hangs motionless. And these birds prefer to live in colonies. They like to feed on insects, while the common kestrel catches and eats rodents, less often large insects.

This bird is found in Africa and Eurasia. And in Russia, one of the most popular falcons living in the Southern Urals, Altai, Transcaucasia is an ordinary kestrel. The habitat and lifestyle of the falcon is well studied. The bird is distributed almost throughout the entire territory of our country, except for the tundra. He loves, of course, more floodplain banks of large rivers, forest-steppes and small forest belts. Dense forests are not for her, as she gets food in open space.

In recent years, civilization has been actively absorbing the natural habitat of the small falcon, so it "moved" and settled down perfectly in the megacities of Europe. And the proximity of a person does not frighten him at all.

Common

The common kestrel is a rather modestly colored bird. The small falcon feeds on lizards, mice and sometimes large insects. In pursuit of prey, it can fly almost above the ground and look for prey for a long time. Noticing one, the bird begins to flap its wings frequently, freezes and dives sharply down.

Vision

Strong claws onpaws and sharp eyesight come to the aid of the bird in obtaining food. The kestrel's eyesight is more than 2.6 times sharper than that of a human. If people had the same, then the oculist's checklist would be easy to read from 90 meters! Experts say that the small falcon perfectly sees ultraviolet radiation. This enables him to recognize the remains of rodent urine on the ground or grass. Due to this, an ordinary kestrel can accurately track down and kill these animals without much effort. The Falcon family is the family to which the kestrel belongs. Her detachment, as you understand, is Falcon, and her genus is Falcons.

Female and male

This bird has pronounced sexual dimorphism. The female can be easily distinguished from the male by the color of the head. The male has light gray shades of head feathers. The head is plain brown. On the back there are poorly distinguishable black spots, mostly in the form of a rhombus. Its tail and part of the back near the tail are covered with bright light gray feathers. The end of the tail is bordered with black stripes with a white border. Under it are cream feathers and barely noticeable spots of a light brown hue. The belly and wing feathers are almost white.

The female differs from the male in a beautiful transverse dark stripe running across the entire back. Her tail has a brown tint, with many transverse stripes and a clear edging at the end. The belly is spotted underneath and much darker.

A young male kestrel at first resembles a female in color. Only the wings are a little shorter and morerounded. Flight feathers are decorated with light borders. The thickening of the beak and the eye ring are pale blue to light green in juveniles and yellow in adults. The tail is rounded because the tail feathers are short. The wings of adults cover the tail feathers, on the densely yellow legs there are very dark claws. The mass of the common kestrel is just over 200 grams, the male barely reaches 300. The average length of the male is 34.5 cm, and the female is 36 cm. The wingspan for such a small bird is impressive - 75-76 cm.

Where is the nest?

From winter habitats, the small falcon arrives in mid-April - early May. The nest is made in pairs. Less often, you can meet a few more pairs nearby or even a colony, but no more than 10 birds.

The common kestrel prefers to nest on not very open forest edges and even on power lines. Less commonly, her dwelling can be found on small rocks or rivers, along steep banks. It does not build a nest, like most falcons, but finds unoccupied nests abandoned by magpies, rooks or ravens. Sometimes the kestrel family can be found in a hollow on a separate tree, and it does not matter that the hollow was not empty. The bird easily kicks out the owners and settles itself. The selected nest is symbolically completed with several branches.

Egg laying and incubation

Depending on the weather, the common kestrel starts laying eggs towards the end of April. The female incubates about five brightly colored, ocher-colored speckled eggs. But ornithologists have found nests with 8 or more eggs. The kestrel has a layingonly once a year. In rare cases, the death of all the eggs, the bird may still make one clutch. Only the female incubates the offspring. The male is working on food.

Offspring

Chicks appear after a month. They can hear and see right away. Having been born, the little falcon chicks are covered with the most delicate white fluff and the same white ones have a beak and claws. In case of possible danger, they lie on their backs, sticking up sharp claws, or simply lie on the bottom of the nest. Both parents are actively engaged in offspring. Children's appetite is "serious". Food is required a lot and often. In one day, while feeding offspring, two parents destroy more than twenty small rodents! At this fertile time, they bring invaluable benefits to farmers and gardeners. And they say that the "empty" bird. They are mistaken, because its contribution to the preservation of the crop is great! Juvenile common kestrel slowly changes plumage color to adult. At this time, the chicks are already interested in the life around them and require even more food.

After 45-50 days the young little falcons are ready for the first flight. At this time, you can see "gymnastic exercises" on the edge of the nest. Soon the common kestrel chicks will fledge and in late September - early October they will go with their parents to their wintering grounds.

Numbers and enemies

In recent years, the common kestrel has been subjected to large-scale banding. Thanks to this, ornithologists found out that the bird can be nomadic, pronouncedly migratory or sedentary. For suchThe behavior of the kestrel is affected only by the food supply in its habitats. The main migration routes of the falcon lie in southern Europe. Very often they were seen in Spain, Poland, Belgium, Germany and even North Africa.

This bird has no enemies, except for humans. In the seventies of the last century, for a good reward, you could hand over her paws. The number of the common kestrel has fallen sharply. The reason for this is the great trust of birds in humans. Since the beginning of 2000, the number of common kestrel has remained at the same level.