Brooklyn Bird Watch: January 19
American Kestrel. Scientific Name: Falco sparverius.
Today, Brooklyn Bird Watch features a Heather Wolf photo of the male American Kestrel, North America’s smallest falcon, as photographed in Brooklyn Bridge Park.
This raptor is about the size of a Mourning Dove and is as colorful as it is fierce. Although it is definitely of the falcon family of predators, nevertheless, the American Kestrel is also known as the “sparrow hawk”.
The male’s slate-blue head and wings contrast elegantly with his rusty-red back and tail, and black raindrop shaped spots on its white or light brown chest feathers; the female has the same warm reddish colorings on her wings, back, and tail, yet does not have the prominent slate-blue color as the male.
Audubon tells us that the American Kestrel has diverse eating habits: Mostly Kestrel’s eat large insects and small mammals, birds, and reptiles. Grasshoppers are among the favored prey, but many other favored large insects include beetles, dragonflies, moths, and caterpillars. American Kestrels also feed on mammals (including voles, mice, and sometimes bats), small birds (sometimes up to the size of quail), lizards, frogs, earthworms, spiders, and crayfish.