The common kestrel is a relatively small bird of prey with pointed wings and a long tail. It is the second most numerous bird of prey in the UK after the buzzard, and is a familiar sight hovering beside roads and motorways or the edges of woodland as it searches for prey. Since the 1970s and the change in farming practices, it has adapted well to urban environments and can survive in city centres, breeding on tall buildings and monuments.
Breeding birds: 46,000 pairs
Family: Falcons And Caracaras
The adult male kestrel has chestnut-coloured upperparts with heavy black spots. Its rump and tail are blue-grey, with the tail having a black subterminal bar and white tips. The primary and secondary flight feathers are black, while the underparts are yellow-brown, streaked with black.
It has a blue-grey head with a distinctive black moustache, and its chin is white. The hooked grey bill has a black tip and a yellow cere, the eyes are dark brown with a yellow eye-ring, and the legs and feet are bright yellow.
The female kestrel is larger than the male and has browner upperparts with dark bars. Her lower back and rump are blue-grey, and her tail is brown with black bars. The primary flight feathers are dark brown, and the secondaries are streaked with brown. The crown and nape of her head are brown with darker brown streaks.
Juvenile kestrels are heavily streaked and do not develop full adult plumage until they are two or three years old, though they can breed while still in subadult plumage.
Try our interactive bird identifier
The kestrel begins breeding in April or May, producing one brood per season. It is monogamous, and while many pairs form lifelong bonds, migratory kestrels often change mates, though some pairs migrate together.
During courtship, the male performs aerial displays, circling several times before diving in a feigned attack towards the female on the ground. The female responds by bowing, raising her tail, and calling loudly.
Kestrels breed in open landscapes, woodlands, and urban areas, often using abandoned corvid nests, tree cavities, or holes in ledges, cliff faces, and buildings, sometimes lining them with sticks and straw. Pairs return to the same nesting site year after year, and may nest in small colonies of up to ten pairs.
The female lays 3–6 smooth white or buff-coloured eggs with reddish-brown markings, which she incubates for 27–30 days while the male provides food. The chicks hatch covered in thick white down and are fed by both parents. They leave the nest at 27–35 days but continue to rely on their parents for food for another 2–4 weeks. Kestrels reach sexual maturity at one year old.
The kestrel feeds mainly on small mammals such as voles, mice and shrews, small birds as well as invertebrates such as worms, grasshoppers and beetles. It hunts its prey by hovering above before swooping down and catching it on the ground.
Kestrels can be seen all year round in a wide variety of habitats such as moors, heaths, farmlands, and wetlands, as well as villages, towns, and cities.
They can often be spotted hovering beside main roads or perched high on a tree branch or telephone wire on watch for prey.
The kestrel can see in ultra-violet light which helps it track small mammals such as voles which leave a trail of urine that glows under UV light.
