Red Creek Wildlife Center

Download The American Kestrel Coloring PageThe American Kestrel
(From the Pennsylvania Game Commission ‘Wildlife Notes” By Chuck Fergus)

American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)

Length, 9-12 inches; wingspread, 20-24 inches; weight, 34 ounces (robin size). Kestrels, also known as sparrow hawks, have rusty red head caps, backs and tails, and a black and white face pattern. Males have blue-gray wings, females brown wings. The kestrel is one of our smallest raptor and our most common falcon. Its flight is erratic and buoyant, and it often perches on telephone poles or hovers in one spot on rapidly beating wings. Voice is a shrill killy killy killy. In summer, kestrels take insects and occasionally birds; in winter, they prey mainly on mice. They inhabit open woods, orchards and fields, and breed throughout the eastern United States. Kestrels nest in tree cavities, abandoned woodpecker holes and old buildings and accept nest boxes readily. Eggs: 3-5, whitish, dotted with brown; the female incubates them 29-30 days.

Americal Kestrel “Indiana” (Indy) Indiana is a 6 year old, male American Kestrel. He is a top education bird who entertains children with his loud calls. Indiana’s picture is also Red Creek’s logo.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 6th, 2007 at 4:58 pm and is filed under Wildlife Information. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.