A female kestrel (who we named Kessie) feeds her four baby kestrels. Via a webcam installed in the nest box, we watched them eat mice, small lizards and snakes, and grasshoppers. All four (three males and a female) survived and successfully fledged within a month of hatching and come back periodically to harass the other local birds. More pictures of the kestrels, and silly commentary, are @tkestrels on Twitter.
A female kestrel (who we named Kessie) eats an eggshell from one of her hatchlings while sitting on them and incubating the rest of the eggs. We watched her eat this shell and others via a webcam installed in the nesting box. We had never heard about Kestrels eating their eggshells so this was surprising to see. More pictures of the kestrels are @tkestrels on Twitter.
A female kestrel (who we named Kessie) feeds her first hatchling while the second hatchling emerges from the egg. They look so fragile at first but they were grown, fledged, and gone within a month. We were able to watch the hatching process for all four eggs via the webcam installed in the nest box.
A male and female kestrel (who we named Trel & Kessie) incubate their four eggs. This picture was taken in early May 2016 via a webcam installed in the nesting box.
All the kestrel chicks returned for a family reunion on top of their nest box. Here the five are watching a bee.
3 1/2 week old American Kestrel chicks in a nestbox attached to our house. The nest overlooks a wetland and fields. Five total chicks hatched, and they have all left the nest as of today. The parents provided a daily diet of mice.
1 of the 2 recently fledged American Kestrel chicks that have used our salt dome at my job. Kdot. Kansas Department of Transportation. Recently fledged female American Kestrel. I think she was saying “Don’t you have something better to do?”