Common kestrel

Kestrels catch small animals to eat.

They catch voles, other small animals and big insects.

Common kestrels eat small animals. In northern Europe, voles and other small mammals are their main food. In Africa and around the Mediterranean, insects may matter more. They also catch small birds and reptiles.

Kestrels have amazing eyesight and can see ultraviolet light, which people cannot see. Vole urine reflects ultraviolet light, so kestrels can spot the trails voles leave as they run through the grass.

The diet is mainly small mammals, particularly in northern Europe, with insects possibly more important in Africa and the Mediterranean (IUCN, citing del Hoyo et al. 1994); small birds and reptiles are also taken. Like some other birds, kestrels can see ultraviolet light, and the urine trails of voles and other small rodents reflect it (RSPB; The Peregrine Fund).

Kestrels hunt by hovering or by dropping from a perch onto prey on the ground, and some wait at the edges of fires to catch small animals fleeing the smoke (The Peregrine Fund). Agricultural intensification is thought to be behind steady declines in much of Europe (IUCN).

Listen to the sound at the start of this page.

A male kestrel screeches, and then a female answers.

At the start of this page you can play a real recording of common kestrels. A male screeches, and then a female answers him. The recordist, Javier Herrera, made it in the late afternoon on his rooftop, so you can also hear the hum of a city in the background.

Kestrels have adapted well to towns and can live right in the middle of cities.

The recording on this page (xeno-canto XC463430, by Javier Herrera) is described as a male kestrel screeching, then answered by the female, with city hum in the background, recorded in the late afternoon on the recordist's rooftop; the birds were seen and no playback was used. The RSPB notes that kestrels have adapted readily to man-made environments and can survive in city centers.

Kestrels usually hunt alone.

In spring, the male brings food to the female while she sits on the eggs.

Common kestrels are usually seen alone or in pairs. On migration they sometimes travel in small flocks of up to 10, and bigger groups may gather where there is lots of food.

They are mostly active in the daytime. Northern kestrels set off south between August and October and come back between February and April.

The species can be solitary or gregarious: it is most often seen singly but sometimes travels in flocks of up to 10, especially on migration, and larger groups gather at abundant food (IUCN). It is mainly diurnal.

Northern birds tend to migrate and others are resident. Migrants leave the breeding grounds between August and October; the return starts between February and April, probably timed by food availability, often in small mixed groups with lesser kestrels and occasionally red-footed falcons. Predation by northern goshawks may limit populations in some areas.

There are many common kestrels.

But in some places there are fewer than before.

The common kestrel is listed as Least Concern, with about 4.3 to 6.7 million grown-up birds. But its numbers are falling. In the United Kingdom, kestrels declined by 37 percent between 1995 and 2023.

In the 1950s and 1960s, strong pesticides harmed many kestrels. Today, changes in farming and poison put out for rats may be problems. Conservation groups such as the RSPB are studying the decline and working with farmers to create good kestrel habitat.

BirdLife International assessed Falco tinnunculus as Least Concern for the IUCN Red List (assessed 10 August 2021, published 2021), with a decreasing trend. Europe holds an estimated 823,000 to 1,270,000 mature individuals and about 19 percent of the range, giving a very preliminary global estimate of 4.3 to 6.7 million.

Past declines followed heavy organochlorine pesticide use in the 1950s and 1960s. Current concerns include anticoagulant rat poisons, agricultural intensification in Europe, habitat degradation and pesticides in West Africa, wind energy and power lines. The RSPB reports a 37 percent UK decline from 1995 to 2023, places the kestrel on the Amber List and suggests secondary poisoning may be involved. Breeding schemes are in place in at least 19 European countries (IUCN).