This guy was not pleased about being disturbed.  He was trying to blend in with his perch.

They are so good at hunting.  I see the Northern Harriers flying around a lot, but I’ve never seen them with food.  Maybe they’re more private about eating than the kestrels.

I caught this one in a rare preening moment.  He really seems to enjoy it.

There is a female kestrel that hunts in my neighborhood.  I usually hear her more than I see her but I did get some pictures last spring.

I hope she doesn’t find any tasty morsels at my feeder.  I’m all for the circle of life philosophy, but I don’t want to have to see it in my backyard.

Okay, so here we go.  I was able to walk almost directly underneath the kestrel because he was eating a mouse.  Yum!

Normally when a birder posts a picture of a bird eating flesh, I freak out and wonder how they can take such delight in death.  But THEN I saw it in person and was fascinated.  It’s also a great picture to use for comparison between males and females.  The females have wings that are brown with dark-brown barring – they have no grey coloring on their wings.

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The kestrel’s underparts have interesting coloring.

Here’s a front view of the female:

Moments after this was taken she took off, and whee!

Unlike Northern Harriers, American Kestrels find their food by hovering over an area.  The structure of their wings allows them to manipulate the wind to aid in hovering without expending too much energy.  So when you see kestrels, you will frequently see this:

The picture above is a female American Kestrel.  The females have brown wings and a light brown cap on their heads.  The males have grey primary feathers and a darker brown cap.

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Their species name is falco sparverius.  Sparverius is Latin for “pertaining to sparrows,” which is funny because kestrels rarely eat sparrows.  Their primary diet is composed of insects, mice, reptiles, and small birds.  You can see that it would be difficult to catch birds and mice with such a small beak.  They’re only eight inches tall.

On the day that the following pictures were taken, the poor kestral was very agitated because these kids were playing paintball in the woods and making a lot of racket.  On top of that, it was very windy, so she really had to grab onto the branch.

Very unfortunate for the kestral, but a nice opportunity for some interesting pictures.

I really like the feathers covering their legs.  They’re so fluffy that the feathers look like pantaloons.

The other day there was one hanging out on the power lines near my house.  It was quite a treat, since I usually have to drive all the way to Half Moon Bay to find them.