Things you need to know about KESTRELS!
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- Опубликовано: 3 ноя 2022
- The common Kestrel is a small, but widespread member of the falcon family. They are also known as the European, the Eurasian or the old-world kestrel and in the UK we just call them kestrels. They are found across most of Europe, north and central Africa and a in lot of countries in asia as far east as Japan. In the UK they don’t migrate but in some parts of their range where temperatures get lower, they will migrate south for the winter.
They have a wingspan of 65 to 80 centimetres and weigh from 135 to 315 grams. These is such a difference between their highest and lowest weights in part because females are noticeably larger than males. They also have different plumage from one another. Males have a grey coloured heads with mottled chestnut brown backs, their tails are also grey and tipped with a black band. Females do not have the distinct grey markings and are mottle brown over their whole bodies, except for their tails which have dark bars across them. Both birds have yellow feet, hooked beaks and large eyes surrounded by a thin yellow rim.
Their diet is mainly made up of small mammals such as voles, mice and shrews but they will also take small birds, lizards, amphibians and even invertebrates such as worms and beetles. To find their prey they often fly on the spot, by facing into and flying at the same speed as the wind, whilst scanning the area below. Its thought that they can see in the ultraviolet light range which means they might be able to spot the urine trails of small mammals even when the animals themselves are out of sight.
Kestrels are mainly monogamous and can start breeding from one year of age, although most of the time it takes until their second year for them to secure a mate and a territory. Once a nest site is chosen, from late April to the middle of may each female will lay between 3 and 6 speckled orange eggs that measure just under 4cm long. These are produced at 2 day intervals but will only be laid if the female is well fed meaning in seasons where food is in low supply, some kestrel pairs will completely fail to breed. The eggs take 27 to 29 days to hatch and are incubated by both parents from after the 3rd or fourth is laid. At first, the chicks are covered in a layer of white down, they aren’t able to maintain their body temperature so are constantly brooded by their mother whilst the male brings a ready supply of food. After 12 days, the chicks are big and feathered enough to be left alone at which point both parents take up the feeding duties. By four weeks of age, the young birds will be fully feathered and begin to branch out away from the nest, often returning to roost in the nest site overnight. Their parents continue to feed them during this time, whilst they learn to find and hunt prey for themselves and after a further 4 weeks, the young birds will be fully independent.
Across their range, kestrel numbers are stable but they have declined In numbers in the UK over the past 25 years. The exact cause of this decline isn’t know but it has been suggested that it’s a combination between a lack of prey caused by changes in farming practices and a lack of suitable nesting sites. There are currently around 31,000 pairs of kestrels in the country and they have an average lifespan in the wild of about 4 years. In captivity they have been known to live to 24 years of age and the oldest known wild bird made it to just shy of 16 years of age.
#Kestrel #britishbirds #nature
Some of the footage used in this video was obtained using creative commons licences. The originals can be found at:
• Kestrel (Falco tinnunc...
• The first food for new...
• Common kestrel - Birds...
• Common Kestrel Hoverin...
• Kestrel chicks call fo...
• Young Kestrel
• Faucon crécerelle - Fa...
• Young falcon succeeds ...
• Common Kestrel Footage...
• Falco tinnunculus broo...
• Faucon crécerelle (Fa...
• Common Kestrel hoverin...
• Common Kestrel feeding...
• チョウゲンボウ 巣箱利用 Common Ke...
• チョウゲンボウ 貯食行動 Common Ke...
• 紅隼/Eurasian Kestrel(Fa...
• 紅隼/Eurasian Kestrel
• Turmfalke
• Common Kestrel .. female
• Bees pestering kestrel...
• UK Wildlife, Kestrel f...
• Juvenile Kestrel gathe...
• 紅隼(茶隼)/Eurasian Kestrel
• Faucon crécerelle 2017
• Female Common Kestrel ...
• Poštolka obecná (Falco...
• 20140517 153314 140033...
• 20200530 070955
• 20200427 073020
• Common Kestrel The chi...
Thumbnail: www.flickr.com/photos/markkil... 
Животные
This is so awesome to see and understand, we have 5 kestrels that live near us that hunt together, one even who flew like a bullet head hight to me over a fence about 5 meters in front of me. I live in the country side and about 10 years ago there were only 2 but now at 5 :)
how did you get kestrels
@@joemama-uv5mp they just live here
Thankyou for this. We have nankeen kestrels here in Australia and their population is growing here on the fringe of Adelaide. One lives across the street from us. And they're fledging at time of writing. Gorgeous:)
Thanks Liam for sharing another great "Things you need to know" video! Greetings from Gothenburg and I hope you're having a good weekend! // Bertil.
Aw, we always look out for kestrels on our walks. Loved learning all these facts about them, especially about their breeding and the youngsters.
Fantastic and beatifull video!!!! Congratulation, thank 💯💢💯👍🤗
Beautiful footage and great information. I learn new knowledge from this video. Big LIKE!!! Greeting from Singapore. Have a nice day.👍👍
Thanks. The narration and editing is all me, but some of the footage is not filmed by me.
Kestrels are my favourite birds tbh
Hi Liam brilliant video again very interesting and full of information brilliant shots of the kestrel love all the information and the way you tell it keep up your good work and videos Bernard
Thank you so much Liam this is one of my favourite’s birds I really enjoy your channel and all the hard work you’ve put into researching all the information so we can benefit keep up the good work 😊
Liam I always like your videos and your narration offers warm reassuring facts that help make me more knowledgeable about birds. Many thanks!
Such paitence Liam...to capture all the interesting footage of the kestrel...many thanks again!
Rob
Fantastic film and info. Cheers,this is wonderful..stunning birds.
Thank you, Liam I do really enjoy your videos. We learn so much.
Thank you Robert.
Excellent as always, thank you! I learn so much from watching your videos Liam 😊
Fascinating. Thanks for presenting this information.
50 years ago, I often saw a dozen or more Kestrels in a day. Now I count myself lucky if I see a dozen in a year.
Brilliant! Thanks so much for your teachings! 4 years is a short life.
Excellent, I just love your format an narrative it all works like a song
Love your videos, very informative thank you 👏
Thank you Vernon!
Very informative Vlog,thank you for sharing this beautiful bird kestrel's life.
Its amazing that aircraft technology comes from kestrels,a humble bird to a multi million pound plane....Love your work Liam.
Great videos kid, keep ‘em coming
Thank you!
I like, how you share information about birds. Good work.👋
Awesome video!! Very informative. Would love to see you do one on the American Kestrel we have here in the States.
Awesome vid Liam
I've been looking for a video like this for over a year thank you
Brilliant, well I am glad you found it in the end!
excellent photography
Beautiful footage of a beautiful bird.
Interesting video.
Greetings Jacq
Many thanks!
Great video. I keep seeing what I think are kestrels and now I know how to identify them. Thank you
love these birds, see them everywhere on the countryside where I live, in th northern netherlands. Such beautiful birds
Things you need to know about Kestrels: they are absolutely unreal. Amazing.
I have never heard of this bird before as they apparently are not in the US. They are very interesting animals. Well done.
They are found in almost all the lower 48! They are easy to overlook as they are small, not much bigger then a blackbird, they roost on telephone wires all the time! When I was a kid in Santa Cruz CA. It was common to see them on the wires near any empty field, we would see them down town as well. My cousin Sherry had one fly in her back door and land in her lap. It was an escaped bird from a falconer as it had the leather truss to tie to the perch on. She tried to find who owned it to no avail and was able to keep it because the laws concerning birds of prey were not yet passed, she had a large cage in the corner of the bedroom that he only used at feeding time and night, unless he was alone in the house then he waited in the cage. He loved my cousin and followed her from room to room. He loved getting head and neck scratches as long as it was Sherry he would not fly to anyone else without a food bribe, and then not even all the time! Sherry was the only human he completely trusted.
@@stevenhall8964
Wow, that's a great story. Yeah, I haven't noticed these birds but will be on the lookout for them in the future. Thanks for the reply. Best wishes.
notsosilentmajority thank you, I try and add a tidbit of knowledge here and there if I can do so without offending anyone, and then again I'm not an expert on anything just very well red. And sometimes I say something that I find out was wrong later on, usually because our knowledge keeps improving and new things are discovered all the time which can leave what everyone thought was truth once, is now shred up mama's tales thanks to new information being discovered! But that's ok I don't mind being wrong if it's got people talking and checking facts and learning as well!! But yes we do have Kestrels here and they are prettier then England's birds!! jus sayin!
@@stevenhall8964
Most thing here are better looking than in England, lol. Hey, England, just kidding?? Lol, no seriously, thanks for the info. You are right, we are constantly learning new things and much of it is changing. Thanks again and good luck.
@notsosilentmajority1 We have a different species known as the American Kestre (Falco Sparverius) which is sometimes called Sparrow Hawk.
Awesome video.
Love you're videos your commentary narrating superbthanks, there awsome bird's
Thanks John!
That was great Liam thanks!! I love Kestrels and first became aware of them when I watched the fabulous movie "Kes" when I was a kid. I think they are probably the only the only UK bird of prey (aside from the occasional Owl) that I have seen and the motionless hovering whilst looking for prey is an amazing sight to see. Cheers again Liam. Have you done a Barn Owl vid?
The cutest bird of prey ever.
Great video, beautiful subject
Thank you!
Thanks!
Thank you!
Excellent vid, thanks 👍
Glad you enjoyed it, thanks!
I saw a kestrel 2 days ago driving north on the M1 from Hemel Hempstead in one of the fields, it was clearly hunting prey as it was flapping its wings in the samespot, really awesome
Super and to the point..
Thank you, very informative.
Thank you!
One of my favourite if not my favourite raptor 💕 I didn't know that they stashed food sometimes? Thank you Liam 😊
Thank you for the vidio keep the good work up
Cheers Peter. I have lots more videos on their way so stay tuned for them.
Thanks again for sharing
Great video
We have American Kestrels mostly in winter. They migrate / shift southwards to NE Oklahoma in autumn. Have seen a couple of early migrants recently.
Thanks for this very interesting 🤔.
Thank you!
Thanks once again :)
Thank you!
I Love this hawk...they are majestic...i think of the courts in England when I see them.
brilliant Liam. All birds are special but raptors are magnificent. We all must do what we can to protect them from THE KNOWN ENEMIES!
I flew a captive bred female Kestrel, she was an bullet. She was so beautiful and fast, she would catch me out with the lure all the time, too quick for me.
Thank you for the interesting video. I recently encountered a Kestral while driving to town. He was on the ground and flew into the bumper of the car. I backed up, wrapped him up in some paper towel and brought him home to administer to his wounds. He had blood from his head and right eye. My daughter treated him with a little hydrogen-peroxide around the eye and we set him up in a dog crate with branches and water. It took quite a while for the eye to heal, but he seems perfectly normal except for a lazy eye covering. He loves being fed, jumping up and down and his little chest beating when he sees me with a mouse at his door then has no problem grabbing it from me. His rehabilitation has been a little less than a month.
Good one this Liam. I think the kestrel is well underestimated as a hunter
Thank you!
This was warming. Cheers matey
Thank you!
I had a male Kestrel for 3 days. I took care of it because it was going to be dinner for 2 cats and it was slightly injured.
A beautiful bird. Pretty much the only British bird that hovers habitually (though Goshawks do and others intermittently). They used to be so common along motorways, probably one a mile or so. Not so now. The motorways stopped the voles etc from crossing, hence giving the Kestrel an easy meal.
I saw one take a sparrow off a fence about 10 feet away from me once, and it took its prey up to its nest, a broken air brick in a school next door to work. Amazing.
I often wonder if, as we have overexploited the seas, perhaps any easy meal for (say) a Kestrel has a similar affect. Just a thought. They were so common, now my heart leaps when I see one.
most people call Goshawks Marsh Harriers or just Marsh Hawks!
exellent as allways thanks for sharing we have kites on our land usually the same pair, for some reason the crows dont like them and often fly at them to send them away and there not near there nest no kestrels unfortunatly
little chicken hawks love em
Went to the red kite feeding station near Aberystwyth on Thursday. If you get the chance, check it out
Great video again. Have you got one on the golden eagle ?
Thank you. I haven't done golden eagles yet but they are on my list (somewhere).
@@AShotOfWildlife Thank you! Look forward to seeing it!
They are beautiful little hunters! Is it legal to train them for falconry?
Super
Thanks!
This was such a great enjoyable video to watch Liam, nowadays I tend to see more buzzards thank kestrels.
In my area the kestrel numbers declined when the buzzards started to arrive but in the last few years they are coming back. Yeh great to see
This is a fabulous channel, full of interesting facts.
One request, please don’t drop ye olde Imperial weights and measurements as I noticed on this programme.
Hi Nick, thanks for the feedback. It is something I did intentionally to see if anyone commented about it. Having both cm and inches slightly ruins the flow of things but I will add it back in, in the future. Cheers.
@@AShotOfWildlife
Thanks for the message Liam, explaining why you did this. However if you could use Imperial too without messing with the flow of your voice over I’m sure there are many other people who’d appreciate it too.
Please keep these coming, they’re so very good 👍
Yorkshire's favourite bird.
I think I have a Kestrel in the field in front of my house. It hovers about 10-15 m off the ground.
One of my favourite birds
Here in the US they are commonly called Sparrow Hawks . My youngest daughter is named Sparrow Hawk .
Are you native
moe define Native. I can trace my ancestors back to 1652 .
@@joebeal4212 a native Indian American , an indigenous American.
A sparrowhawk is a completely different species. There are sparrowhawks in the UK.
Sparrow hawks also exist in the Uk and they ARENT kestrels smdh
Great video Liam, but must say 4 to 8 voles a day is way to much food for a hawk that size!
Thanks. I did some follow up research on this and the rspb say 4 to 8 but others do say less or similar.
👍
those nest boxes can make urban conditions safer to them
Chat GPT give me the name of this bird after describing it! I'm fascinated by it as I usually see it on the freeways just hovering around in one spot that's really amazing.
Great videos, which dialect is he speaking?
Thank you. I find it funny when people ask what dialect I am speaking, especially when a lot of the people I speak to regularly have such stronger accents than me. I live in Norfolk, east of england but spent 4 years in cambridge so have a bit of a blend of queens english and farmers english. Cheers :)
Kestrels are also found in the Americas, in the U.S. they are commonly referred to as "Sparrow Hawks"
Yes indeed, very rarely this species but the American kestrel is quite similar.
Sparrow hawks and kestrel 2 different birds 🤷♂️🤷♂️
I’m afraid to say here in N.Ireland there has been a sharp decline in kestrels, when I was younger I used to see them occasionally hovering in the sky but I haven’t seen one in years, I think probably due to intensive farming practices as hedge rows are being pulled up to make larger fields and also tree have been removed to give more light to crops.
A very sad situation and it will get worse as business men now buy land and get contractors in to do all the work for cereal products.
So no longer do farmers have control over land .
Average age in the wild of only 4 years but as much as 24 in captivity, which only goes to show how tough an existence wildlife has to contend with.
They live in most of North America as well.
Anyone knows how often the four weeks old babies eat?
🦅👍👌
I am nearly sure the US have them too. Males even a nicer blueish grey head.
Some times called a "wind hover"
He’s kinda fit
In NJ we have 'American Kestrels' which are flashier(reddish rust with a slate blue and black face markings) then the Common Kestrel you showed. My friend has rescued falcons from Newark NJ ( American Kestrel and Peregrine Falcon). We rescue birds when they migrate thru the city, birds hit the glass skyscrapers or fall to the cement, most do not survive impact, those that do we get them help. I stick with the songbirds he rescues all birds/bats. A youtube shows us in Newark NJ ruclips.net/video/kjxoV66pCcM/видео.html and ruclips.net/video/Awp3mupoRyo/видео.html of us picking up injured Warblers.
Kestrels from mainland Europe are flashier then these are, however ALL Kestrels are closely related all old world varieties being subspecies of the same species and possibly for the American varieties as well!
@@stevenhall8964 Thanks just a few years ago I knew nothing about birds, now I enjoy learning something new almost everyday. Thank you
@@anitacoogan4822 thank you Anita, but an ornithologist I am not!! I usually don't remark in these chats unless I know I'm 100 right or the you tuber and are friends or at least pleasant acquaintances, or sometimes a wild hair grew somewhere like when I responded to this one! All I really wanted to relay is that we have them here as well because when he was talking about ranges for these beautiful little Hawks, he mentioned everywhere else but the Americas! I didn't say only North America because I think that some of the population migrates to Central America and even to parts of South America. I cannot say this with an absolute certainty however, but I seem to remember reading that somewhere. So if that and or the species ,subspecies thing I said are wrong which they could be and I think I'm right, but if I'm wrong than I offer everyone my Humblest apologies now, and promptly say,,,,,I'm pretty smart, but I do not know everything about everything , I mean I'm not God, just the next best thing!! Naw jus kiddin up there fellas!! Have a wonderful one Anita and it's always good to learn, and the more we think we know, the more we realize how much more there is to know!! In the words of my Lakota people, Mitakuye Oyasin, all my relatives!
@@stevenhall8964 Thank you!
@@stevenhall8964 Sorry to be a Pest. I just opened my Nov/Dec 2022 issue , of Smithsonian Magazine read an article on pages 11-13 about how the Lakota Nation may view Crazy Horse. Back in 1975 my father's friend Stephen Ambrose had given him a book he had just published named 'Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors', it is the thickest book I ever read, but I could not put it down. I'm an avid reader, with no Indian heritage yet found the book 'The Heart of Everything That Is' is' which focused on Red Cloud another interesting book. Have not read either book in years, but so interesting that I kept them.
English folk name windhover,for obvious reason
Unfortunately they would hunt down my 2 pyrrhuras if i kept them together.
I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird, - the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!
Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!
No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion.
The Windhover
Gerald Manley Hopkins
My name is Kestrel
mine too! picked it myself haha, glad to see there are other kestrels out there :-)
Can you give to me Kestrel bird male
no, I dont keep captive birds.
Actually, it is an insult as well as a misnomer to call this pretty little falcon a" sparrow hawk " for only occasionally does it eat anything with feathers on it. By far the vast majority of its food consists of small rodents and large insects and other pests which are injurious to crops,which is why farmers like having them around! 😅
Who called them sparrowhawks?
this is everything you want us to know about kestrels. rise up people, stay woke. dont let big nature channel tell you what you can and cant know about kestrels
I hate this bird !
A common old name for the Kestrel: the windfucker, or the fuckwind. I kid you not. There is even a gloss for this name in the OED:
1. A name for the kestrel: cf. windhover.
"1599 Nashe Lenten Stuffe 49 The kistrilles or windfuckers that filling themselues with winde, fly against the winde euermore.".
The name was coined by elizabethan playwright, pamphleteer and dramatist Thomas Nashe in 1599. The "fuck" in the name refers to an older germanic meaning of "beating and striking" whilst fucking (the twain that could still fit in to the modern habituations of the said "usage" (or "do-age") nowadays anyways, I suppose).
Almost immediately after Nashe created his name it was used by men to jocularly describe other men's businesses as to fuck also meant exactly what it carries on meaning to-day. A second gloss from the OED on this "windfucker":
2. fig. as a term of opprobrium.
1602 Narcissus MS. Rawl. Poet. 212, lf. 80, I tell you, my little windfuckers, had not a certaine melancholye ingendred with a nippinge dolour overshadowed the sunne shine of my mirthe, I had beene I pre, sequor, one of your consorte. 1609 B. Jonson Silent Wom. i. iv. (1620) C3b, Did you euer heare such a Wind-fucker, as this? c1611 Chapman Iliad Pref. A4, There is a certaine enuious Windfucker, that houers vp and downe, laboriously ingrossing al the air with his luxurious ambition. a1616 Beaum. & Fl. Wit without M. iv. i, Husbands for Whores and Bawdes, away you wind-fuckers [sic ed. 1639].
I like the third _exemple_ from 1611. 😂
Great video
Thank you!