| The bird of prey most often seen by everyone as it hunts,
hovering beside main roads, fields, moorland and heath avoiding only areas
of dense forests preferring open rough ground. It is the only falcon or
hawk in this country that hunts in this fashion so if you see a falcon hovering
you know it must be a Kestrel. The male bird has black-spotted chestnut
brown upper-parts, a blue-grey head, a blue-grey tail with a single black
bar and buff coloured under-parts with black spots. The female is danker
in colour with black barring on its upper-parts, wings and along the length
of the tail, and the under-parts have black streaking rather than black
spots. Young birds are similar to the female in appearance. They feed on
small mammals (specially voles), insects, worms and small birds which they
will take in flight. |
