American kestrel

Kestrels eat bugs, like grasshoppers.

They also catch mice and lizards.

American kestrels eat mostly insects and other small creatures: grasshoppers, cicadas, beetles, dragonflies, butterflies, moths, spiders and even scorpions. They also catch voles, mice, shrews, bats and small songbirds, and sometimes snakes, lizards and frogs.

When a kestrel catches more than it can eat, it hides the extra food in clumps of grass, tree roots, bushes or holes, saving it for later.

Kestrels eat mainly insects and other invertebrates, including grasshoppers, cicadas, beetles, dragonflies, butterflies, moths, scorpions and spiders, along with voles, mice, shrews, bats and small songbirds, and occasionally small snakes, lizards and frogs (All About Birds). Some observers report larger prey such as red squirrels and northern flickers.

Surplus kills are cached in grass clumps, tree roots, bushes, fence posts, branches and cavities, to save food for lean times or hide it from thieves. Birds can see ultraviolet light, and this may let kestrels see the urine trails of voles, as has been observed in the closely related Eurasian kestrel. In some cities, kestrels hunt moths drawn to stadium lights during night games.

Listen to the sound at the start of this page.

That is a real American kestrel calling as it flies.

At the start of this page you can play a real recording of an American kestrel's flight call. It was recorded by Niels Krabbe at the edge of a dry forest in the upper Yunguilla Valley in Ecuador, about 1,780 meters up in the Andes.

In the breeding season, males call a short series of 'klee!' notes at the top of each climb in their swooping display flights.

The recording on this page is a flight call of Falco sparverius (xeno-canto XC250844), made by Niels Krabbe at the edge of semi-arid secondary forest in the upper Yunguilla Valley, Azuay, Ecuador, at 1,780 meters; the bird was seen and no playback was used. All About Birds describes the short series of 'klee!' calls that males give at the top of each ascent in their territorial climb-and-dive display, and suggests listening, particularly in summer, for the shrill 'killy-killy-killy' call.

Kestrels are small but brave.

They chase bigger hawks away from their homes.

In the breeding season, a male kestrel shows off his territory by flying up high, then diving down, again and again, calling 'klee! klee!' at the top. Courting pairs share food: usually the male feeds the female.

Kestrels are small but bold. They chase bigger hawks and eagles, and they fight off bluebirds, flickers and small squirrels that want the same nest holes. But larger birds such as hawks and owls, and some snakes, hunt kestrels.

Males advertise territories by repeatedly climbing and diving with short series of 'klee' calls at each peak, and courting pairs exchange food, usually from male to female; early in pair formation, groups of four or five may gather (All About Birds). Kestrels harass larger hawks and eagles on migration and attack hawks in their territories, and they compete with other cavity nesters, sometimes evicting bluebirds, northern flickers and small squirrels.

Being one of the smallest birds of prey, they are themselves prey for American goshawks, red-tailed hawks, barn owls, American crows and sharp-shinned and Cooper's hawks, as well as rat snakes, corn snakes and even fire ants. Large numbers pass coastal migration sites such as Cape May, New Jersey, in September and early October.

There are many American kestrels.

But there are fewer than before. Nest boxes help them.

The American kestrel is listed as Least Concern, and there are about 9.2 million grown-up birds. But in North America its numbers have fallen by about half since 1966.

Kestrels lose nest holes when people clear land and cut down dead trees, and they lose food when farms remove hedges and brush. Pesticides kill the insects they eat. People can help by putting up kestrel nest boxes.

BirdLife International assessed Falco sparverius as Least Concern for the IUCN Red List (assessed 12 June 2025, published 2025): its range and population are extremely large, but the trend is decreasing. Partners in Flight (2024) estimates 9.2 million mature individuals, 2.8 million of them in the USA and Canada.

The North American Breeding Bird Survey shows a decline of about 1.41 percent a year, about 53 percent overall from 1966 to 2019 (All About Birds). Causes include land clearing, the felling of standing dead trees used for nesting, 'clean' farming that removes hedgerows, trees and brush, and pesticides, which reduce clutch size and hatching success and destroy the insects kestrels eat. Nest boxes are a practical way to help.