American Kestrel

Another interesting facet of my recent trip to Utah was the large number of American Kestrels that I observed. They were everywhere, in the trees, on the marsh, on wires along the road, and along streets.  In fact, it reminded me somewhat of when we drive around here in Massachusetts and see Red-tailed Hawks sitting in trees along the road.  The numbers of red-tailed hawks that we see are much less in numbers, then the amount of kestrels that I saw in Utah, in a same area, probably due to the difference in size of the birds and the territory they cover.
In fact, in Massachusetts, the American Kestrel is declining markedly and they are one of the birds of concern from the Massachusetts Audubon Society.  Here is a link to the information that the Mass Audubon has online http://www.massaudubon.org/Birds_and_Birding/birdstowatch/kestrels/index.php
The American Kestrel is a beautiful bird with the male showing a reddish brown back and blue gray upper wing colors. The females wings are reddish brown. Both the male and female have pairs of black vertical slashes on the side of their pale face. 





In the air, they will hover with tails spread as they look for prey on the ground..




You can help increase the numbers of American Kestrels by building and hanging a nesting box for them.  http://www.birds.cornell.edu/nestinginfo/downloads/Am%20Kestrel%20Screech-Owl%20N%20Saw-whet%20Owl.pdf.