Saturday, March 5, 2011

North American Kestrel Habitats: Cavity Nests, Pale Eggs, Rufous Bodies


Summary: American kestrel habitats seasonally in Canada and Mexico, year-round in the Caribbean and the United States have rufous bodies, pale eggs, cavity nests.


American kestrel (Falco sparverius) in flight at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, Lower Rio Grande Valley, South Texas; 2009: Robert Burton/USFW (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), Public Domain, via USFWS Digital Library

North American kestrel habitats assist cultivators through Falconidae raptor family member appetites for foraging birds, insects and reptiles and hunters and naturalists through distribution ranges in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
American kestrels bear their common name and the scientific name Falco sparverius as a French loan word for bird of prey and Latin for sparrow-like falcon. Agro-industry, pesticides, pollution, powerlines, predation, recreation, tourism and urbanization challenge the American kestrel, classified in 1758 by Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1787). In winter, bigger, more aggressive females drive the smaller, subordinate male away from open, prey-rich deserts, farmlands and grasslands into prey-poor woodlands counterproductive to hover-and-search hunting.
Ten- to 15-year lifespans expect cliffs, cultivated lands, deserts, fallow farmlands, grasslands, open woodlands, orchards and urban areas with nest-worthy buildings, earth mounds, nest-boxes or trees.

March to June facilitate brooding one to two three- to seven-egg clutches by following two- to three-day egg-laying intervals and filling later-laid yolks with more testosterone.
Mothers-to-be gather little or no material for cavity nests in abandoned flicker or pileated woodpecker holes, building eaves, earth and rocky mounds, nest-boxes or tree holes. Nests house brown-blotched or gray-dotted, mottled or speckled, buff, cinnamon, cream or pink-white, 1.18- to 1.49-inch (30- to 38-millimeter) by 0.94- to 1.14-inch (24- to 29-millimeter) eggs. Mothers-to-be, with fathers-to-be foraging, initiate 28- to 35-day incubations from the first egg-laying for different-aged, different-sized hatchlings from eggs 10 percent larger than maternal size indicates.
Habitat loss by brush, hedgerow and tree removal, land clearances and pesticide use and predation by drivers, hunters and natural enemies jeopardize North American kestrel habitats.

Semi-helpless chicks know an initially scanty white down as hatchlings open-eyed one day or two after hatching and a second creamy to yellow-white down as nestlings.
Chicks live off food foraged by fathers and shared by mothers until they learn hunting with both parents and then independently within 20 days of hatching. They manage adult calls two weeks after hatching, physical independence by moving away from parent-tended nests 30 days after hatching and sexual maturity 11 months later. Adults need beetles, butterflies, cicadas, crickets, dragonflies, grasshoppers, moths, scorpions and spiders during warmer months and frogs, lizards, mice, shrews, snakes, songbirds and voles during cold.
North American kestrel habitats up to 4,300 feet (1,310.64 meters) above sea level offer winter's coldest temperatures at minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.77 degrees Celsius).

Keen eyesight and two black, eye-like spots on the backs of heads protect kestrels from bobcats, coyotes, great-horned owls, prairie falcons, raccoons, red-tailed hawks and skunks.
Barred, rufous upperparts, cinnamon-tan breasts, dark vertical head-stripes, gray tooth-and-notch bills, light undertail feathers, spotted underparts and yellow-orange feet and legs quicken brown-eyed, long-winged adult identifications. Adult females reveal barred, rufous tails and wings and adult males dark-barred or spotted blue-gray wings, outer flight feathers dark like females and part-barred light undertails. Delicate, hovering, moth-like flight on 20.1- to 24-inch (51.05- to 60.96-centimeter) wingspans suggests 3.5- to 5-pound (1.59- to 2.27-kilogram), 8.7- to 12.2-inch (22.09- to 30.99-centimeter) adults.
Distressed, excited, high-pitched killy-killy-killy calls, fast chitter during courtship and mating and long whines by feeding adults and hungry offspring tell of North American kestrel habitats.

illustration of eggs of American kestrel under synonymous common name of sparrow hawk and scientific synonym of Tinnunculus sparverius; Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio, Plate XLIV, figure 1, opp. page 170: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Acknowledgment
My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:
American kestrel (Falco sparverius) in flight at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, Lower Rio Grande Valley, South Texas; 2009: Robert Burton/USFW (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), Public Domain, via USFWS Digital Library @ https://digitalmedia.fws.gov/cdm/singleitem/collection/natdiglib/id/13901/rec/9
illustration of eggs of American kestrel under synonymous common name of sparrow hawk and scientific synonym of Tinnunculus sparverius; Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio, Plate XLIV, figure 1, opp. page 170: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34908293

For further information:
Baicich, Paul J.; and Harrison, Colin J.O. Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds. Second edition. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, Princeton Field Guides, 2005.
Berlepsch, Hans von. January 1892. "Die Vögel der Insel Curaçao: 15. Tinnunculus spariverius brevipennis." Journal für Ornithologie, vierte folge (fourth series), jahrgang XXXX, no. 197: 91-95. Leipzig: L.A. Kittler.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/32796593
Chapman, Frank M. (Michler). 1915. "Article XI. Descriptions of Proposed New Birds From Central and South America: Cerchneis sparverius caucae subsp. nov." Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. 34: 375-376.
Available via AMNH Research Library Digital Repository @ http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/bitstream/handle/2246/821//v2/dspace/ingest/pdfSource/bul/B034a11.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Chapman, Frank M. (Michler). 1915. "Article XI. Descriptions of Proposed New Birds From Central and South America: Cerchneis sparverius fernandensis subsp. nov." Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. 34: 379-380.
Available via AMNH Research Library Digital Repository @ http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/bitstream/handle/2246/821//v2/dspace/ingest/pdfSource/bul/B034a11.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Cory, Charles B. (Barney). 7 August 1915. "Notes on South American Birds, With Descriptions of New Subspecies: Cerchneis sparvaria australia Ridg.: Cerchneis sparvaria cearae." Field Museum of Natural History Publication 183 - Ornithological Series, vol. I, no. 9: 318.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2643813
Cory, Charles B. (Barney). 23 February 1915. "Descriptions of New Birds From South America and Adjacent Islands: Cerchneis sparvarius ochracea subsp. nov." Field Museum of Natural History Publication 183 - Ornithological Series, vol. I, no. 8: 298.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2650658
Cory, Charles B. (Barney). 23 February 1915. "Descriptions of New Birds From South America and Adjacent Islands: Cerchneis sparvarius peruviana subsp. nov." Field Museum of Natural History Publication 183 - Ornithological Series, vol. I, no. 8: 296.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2650656
Gmelin, Jo. Frid. (Johann Friedrich). 1788. "118. Falco aesalon caribaearum." Caroli a Linné Systema Naturae, tom. I, pars I: 284. Editio Decima Tertia, Aucta, Reformata. Lipsaie [Leipzig]: Impensis Georg Emanuel Beer
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2896884
Gmelin, Jo. Frid. (Johann Friedrich). 1788. "119. Falco aesalon dominicensis." Caroli a Linné Systema Naturae, tom. I, pars I: 285. Editio Decima Tertia, Aucta, Reformata. Lipsaie [Leipzig]: Impensis Georg Emanuel Beer
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2896885
Griscom, Ludlow. 24 March 1930. "Studies From the Dwight Collection of Guatemala Birds. II: Cerchneis sparvaria tropicalis, new subspecies." American Museum Novitates, no. 414: 1-2.
Available via American Museum of Natural History Research Library Digital Repository @ http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/bitstream/handle/2246/3131//v2/dspace/ingest/pdfSource/nov/N0414.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd edition. Volumes 8-11, Birds I-IV, edited by Michael Hutchins, Jerome A. Jackson, Walter J. Bock and Donna Olendorf. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2002.
Howe, Reginald Heber Jr.; LeRoy King. 21 May 1902. "Notes on Various Florida Birds: Cerchneis sparverius paulus subsp. novo." Contributions to North American Ornithology, vol. I: 28-30.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/contributionsto00howegoog#page/n30/
Howell, Thomas R. (Raymond). July 1965. "New Subspecies of Birds From the Lowland Pine Savanna of Northeastern Nicaragua: Falco sparverius nicaraguensis." The Auk, vol. 82, no. 3 (July-September): 442-448.
Available via SORA (Searchable Ornithological Research Archive) @ https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v082n03/p0438-p0464.pdf
Jones, Howard. 1886. Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio. Illustrations by Mrs. N.E. Jones. Vol. II. Circleville OH: s.n. (sine nomine).
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34908243
Linnaeus, Carl. 1758. "18. Falco sparverius." Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, Secundum Classes, Ordines, Genera, Species, cum Characteribus, Differentiis, Synonymis, Locis, Tomus I, Editio Decima, Reformata: 90. Holmiae [Stockholm, Sweden]: Laurentii Salvii [Laurentius Salvius].
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/726997
Mearns, Edgar A. (Alexander). 1892. "A Study of the Sparrow Hawks (Subgenus Tinnunculus) of America, With Especial Reference to the Continental Species Falco sparverius Linn.): Falco sparverius aequatorialis subsp. nov." The Auk, vol. IX (old series vol. XVII): 269-270. New York NY: L.S. Foster.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/16017671
Mearns, Edgar A. (Alexander). 1892. "A Study of the Sparrow Hawks (Subgenus Tinnunculus) of America, With Especial Reference to the Continental Species Falco sparverius Linn.): Falco sparverius peninsularis subsp. nov." The Auk, vol. IX (old series vol. XVII): 267. New York NY: L.S. Foster.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/16017669
Peterson, Alan P., M.D. "Falco sparverius Linnaeus 1758." Zoonomen: Zoological Nomenclature Resource > Birds of the World -- Current Valid Scientific Avian Names > Falconiformes > Falconinae > Falco.
Available @ http://www.zoonomen.net/avtax/falc.html
Swainson, William. 1838. "2. Falco cinnamominus." Animals in Menageries, Part III: 281. Cabinet Cyclopaedia series. London UK: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/28994992
Swainson, William. 1838. "3. Falco isabellinus." Animals in Menageries, Part III: 281-282. Cabinet Cyclopaedia series. London UK: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/28994992
Vigors, N.A. (Nicholas Aylward). 1827. "Article XLVI. Sketches in Ornithology: On Some Species of Birds From Cuba: 4. Falco sparverioides." Zoological Journal, vol. III, no. XI (September-December 1827): 436-438. London UK: W. Phillips.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/27485962



No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.