My American Kestral Falcon

Totally Judy

Totally Judy

Joined
Dec 3, 2000
Messages
4,347
My friends at work had seen pictures of the Cooper's Hawk I had taken last week. I was a bit leary late this morning when one of the secretaries called me to tell me, "Shirley says there is a hawk outside on our sign." Shirley is the Superintendent's secretary and a good friend. But still...... I asked,"You mean a real hawk that is alive and breathing? Not a stuffed or toy hawk?" We all love to play jokes on each other. Well, I grabbed the camera and headed out the door.

I slowed down when I got to the building where the sign was located. I had my camera turned on. Sure enough, sitting on top of the big sign was a small hawk. Well, I assumed it was a hawk. So I started taking pictures while walking very slowly and quietly towards the hawk.

I got right up to the sign, still taking pictures, and that little hawk just glanced at me as if some strange woman was always poking a camera in it's face. I took pictures from the side, from the front, from the other side, from the back. That little bird still did not fly away. I bet I took a good 50 pictures already. I always take a gazillion pictures hoping to get at least 1 good one.

Finally, the little hawk flew off. Dang. But then it just flew directly ahead and landed on the front top of a parked car. So I followed it and took even more pictures. From the right side, from the front, from the left side, from the front, from the right side. Sheesh! Isn't this bird ever going to fly away? I can't walk away from a raptor bird who is letting me get about 2 feet from it for an extended period of time.

FINALLY! The bird flew away and landed on the edge of the building. I took a couple of pictures and then headed back to my office.

On my way to my office, I heard a bird circling overhead, and it was crying out what sounded like, "ca! ca! ca! ca! ca!" But not the "ca" like a raven or crow would do. This bird was really upset. My boss figured it might have a nest nearby and saw the hawk and was trying to distract it. It just kept circling overhead.

And then it did the weirdest thing. It stopped in mid-air and started hovering. Hovering! It's body was almost vertical, and it's wings were slowing going back and forth. But it was not moving in any direction. Different than a humming bird looks when it hovers because the wings were going to slow. This bird would circle again and then hover. I wasn't able to get a picture of it hovering. It finally went and landed on the ball on the top of the flagpole. I was able to get a couple of pictures of this bird in flight and also on the flagpole. I walked around to the front, and the little hawk was still on the edge of the roof, and this freaked out bird was on the flagpole. So I went back to my office.

I couldn't find anything online when I did a search on identifying hawks that showed me any pictures of the hawk I had taken pictures of. So I went to the Maintenance Shop and left a message for the guy who came and identifed my Cooper's Hawk for me. He knows a lot about a lot. Ask this guy a question about anything and he'll probably be able to answer you question.

So the guy comes to my office, I bring up the picture of my little hawk and he says, "Female Kestral Falcon, immature, also known as a Sparrow Hawk." Wow. He's good. So he tells me a lot about the Kestral Falcon. Awesome.

So then I tell him about the freaked out bird. He said, "You didn't happen to get a picture did you?" Well of course I did! We finally were able to zoom in enough and he said at first, "Well, it's probably a nest-mate or a parent of the female falcon." Then we looked at another picture and he said, "It's an adult female Kestral Falcon, probably the mother, and she's not happy that the little guy took off."

Ain't it great? I'm gonna post some pictures and just a little info about the American Kestral Falcon.

FemaleKestral5.jpg
 
American Kestral Falcon

This falcon is one of the few true birds of prey whose sex can be determined by coloration. The male has bluish-slate gray on top of his head with a ferruginous (chestnut) crown and bluish-slate gray wings. The back is almost completely ferruginous. They have a whitish breast, suffused with light amber-brown, and under parts spotted with black. The tail is red with a black sub-terminal band and white tip.

The female’s back, wings, and tail are broadly barred with ferruginous and dark brown. They lack the bluish-gray on the head and wings that the male has. The under parts are white streaked and barred on the flanks in cinnamon, along with a brown spotted breast and abdomen.

Both have a black patch or stripe on their white face that extends from the eye to the throat with another across the ear. The beak is blue-black. The cere, legs, and feet are yellow to yellow-orange. This color is paler in the females and the juvenile birds.

The juvenile coloration is similar to the adult, but more spotted or barred. The juvenile male’s back is slightly darker and completely barred. The tail is tipped with ferruginous not white. The under parts are streaked and spotted throughout. The juvenile female has less conspicuous ferruginous streaking on the head. The back is darker with heavier black barring.

The American Kestral keeps the juvenile wings, tail, and part of the body plumage through an incomplete molt starting in September or October of the first year. They do not lose these feathers until their second annual molt. At two years (or by the spring of their third year), the immature birds are indistinguishable from the adults.

The American Kestral exhibits all the usual falcon characteristics:

• Raptorial feet that are highly adapted for grasping their prey and very long toes.
• They lack the powerful spasmodic clutching mechanism of other birds of prey.
• Rather short beaks and jaw muscles modified to deliver powerful bites.
• Tomial tooth (killing tooth), that is a notch on the cutting edge of beak.
• Nostrils that possess a prominent central bony tubercle.
• Long, pointed, distinctively proportioned wings.
• Dark eye stripe or patch.

The cry of an American Kestral is a fairly high pitched "qui, qui, qui" or a short, shrill chatter "ki-wee, ki-wee, ki-wee."

American Kestrals are able to hover. Many birds can hover for a short period of time, but few can sustain it for long since it is an energy draining exercise. Prolonged hovering is mainly limited to specialists such as the Kestrals of the Old and New Worlds. The American Kestral is often seen hovering or perched on wires in open areas, hunting insects and small mammals. When perched, it commonly bobs its tail up and down. It is the only North American falcon to hunt by hovering.

FemaleKestral6.jpg


FemaleKestral7.jpg
 
And here is Mama Kestral, very mad. One of her flying, and then the second is of her on top of the flag pole. I bet she plucked a few tail feathers out of little Katrina Kestral before she got her back home!!


MamaKestrallFlying.jpg



MamaKestral.jpg




And that's my story and I'm sticking to it! 20 years of full time lliving in the desert and in a 2-week period I am able to get up close and take pictures of an immature Cooper's Hawk and an immature Kestral Falcon.

Who woulda thunk it?

TJ
 
Fantastic !! You'll have to change your forum name to 'Hawk Lady' !! Another hovering one , though not a falcon, is the harrier [marsh hawk]. I have also seen a bald eagle hover but that was in a stiff wind .The kestrel likes to sit on a telephone line overlooking a field. Voles leave an almost continuous trail of urine as they go through a field. The urine reflects UV light . Guess what - the kestrel can see UV !! The kestrel has also been used for falconry , usually by women and kids.
 
Very nice pictures! We see kestrals around here, occasionally, and I have seen them hovering.
 
Judy
You need to install a kestrel box. Those birds will use them to nest in. Nice story!
Lycosa
 
Gorgeous pics! We have quite a few Kestrels in the area here, my wife and I have a regular viewing area along the River des Peres as we ride home. Kestrels, Red-Tails, the occasional Peregrin..

I was watching a little flock of sparrows taking a dust-bath one afternoon when a kestrel swooped in and grabbed one. Like a bullet!
 
I used to see kestrels hover all the time above the bluffs on the coast around Half Moon Bay CA. I thought they did it because of the constant strong headwind coming in off the ocean and running up the bluffs. I never realized they did it under other conditions.
 
That's amazing!

Dang how close did ya get to the car!

Edit: I think Coug needs to use the one close up on the car for mod purposes to replace the snapping turtle.
 
I just happened across this photo on the BBC website !
 

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DaveH said:
Dang how close did ya get to the car!
Click to expand...

I was leaning on the windshield and front of the top of the car. I wasn't kidding when I said I was about 1-1/2 feet from the Kestral. I took over 100 pictures of it. I was just as close to it when it was sitting on the top of the blue sign. It would occasionally look at me, but ignored me most of the time. When it was on the car, I was talking to it the entire time I was taking pictures. I even made noises to get it's attention so it would look at me for a good picture.

Yeah, this immature Kestral definitely has not yet developed it's fear instinct. No wonder Mama Kestral was so frantic. I doubt the little female would have let me touch her. I was tempted to slowly put out a finger to see if it would step up, but I realized that I would be seriously stupid to even try it. Heck, just to seriously consider it was stupid.

But it sure was neat getting these pictures!!!

TJ
 
Beautiful bird TJ and grand photos, thanky for sharing them with us!!!!!!
There was a big ole hawk fartin around my yard last year but I never did get any pix of it.
 
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