UNCLASSIFIED // FOR BIRDERS ONLY
Hawk-Ops

Target folder // AMEKES

American Kestrel

Falco sparverius · Falconidae (falcons)

Male American Kestrel on a bare branch, with blue-gray wings, a spotted orange chest, and black face stripes.
Photo: Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0

The falcon on the wire. If a small hawk is sitting on a roadside wire or hovering over a field, check for blue-gray wings and the two black face stripes.

ID Features

  • Small, slim falcon, about 9 to 12 inches long, with long, pointed wings.
  • Two narrow black vertical marks on each side of a white face.
  • Males have blue-gray wings and a rufous back and tail, with a black band near the tail tip.
  • Females have rufous wings and back with dark bars, and a tail with many narrow bars.
  • Hunts from wires, poles, and fence posts along roads and fields, and bobs its head and tail before it strikes. Sometimes hovers in place.

Signals

More recordings: xeno-canto · Macaulay Library

Where and When

Clark County, NV
Year-round resident, uncommonOpen country with places to perch, including desert, farmland, and the edges of town.Source: Clark County Wetlands Park bird list (Clark County Parks and Recreation, rev. March 2019): resident, uncommon, nests here. Desert National Wildlife Refuge bird list (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, May 2018): uncommon in every season, nests locally. Status from two site lists, not survey data. For week-by-week detail, see eBird's Clark County bar chart.

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