American Kestrel

Falco sparverius

The American kestrel is the smallest and most common falcon in the Americas. Though it has been called the American "sparrow hawk", this now obsolete vernacular name is a misnomer; the American kestrel is a true falcon, while neither the Eurasian sparrowhawk nor the other species called sparrowhawks are in the family Falconidae, hence only very distantly related to the American kestrel. It has a roughly two-to-one range in size over subspecies and sex, varying in size from about the weight of a blue jay to a mourning dove. It is a very successful species, occurring almost throughout North and South America except for the Arctic fringes of North America, and the densest tropical Amazon rainforest areas; it has evolved into 17 subspecies adapted to different environments and habitats throughout the region. It exhibits sexual dimorphism in size and plumage, although both sexes have a rufous back with noticeable barring. Its plumage is colorful, and juveniles are similar in plumage to adults. Source

Where it is now

In the last 8 weeks this bird was recorded 159,318 times across 95 areas (each area is a 5 degree square).

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Movement and weather

Each season it is first heard regularly where daytime highs are around 23°C (typically 6 to 32°C, from 35 areas). That range is wide, so temperature alone does not explain when it turns up.

Over the weeks it was present in the past year, its centre in North America ranged from 26°N in January to 50°N in May, about 2,700 km apart.

Arrival dates

The week it was first heard regularly in each region, after at least six weeks away. Dates differ from south to north, so a region has a range.

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Figures are effort corrected and come from automatic sound identification, which makes mistakes. How this is measured and how it compares with human observers.