Common Kestrel

How to recognise it

• Pale rufous-brown back with black spots and black flight feathers
• Male has a grey head and plain grey rump and tail
• Female has a rufous-brown head and a tail barred black and rufous-brown
• Dark tail band with a narrow white tip, and a fairly dark moustache stripe

Call and song

The most common call is a fast, shrill series, ki-ki-ki-ki, used as an alarm call. The female and young birds beg with a trilling kirrl, kirrl repeated several times.

Where and when

The Common Kestrel is a partial migrant that breeds in Sweden. It uses open country such as fields, heaths, scrub and wetlands, and has recently spread north as far as the mountain birch forest. It winters in Skåne and on the west coast; elsewhere it moves south in August to November and returns in March to April. It is reported from all 21 counties, mostly in August and September.

Food and behaviour

It feeds mainly on mice and other small rodents, and also takes amphibians, lizards, beetles and grasshoppers. When hovering it holds itself about 20 metres above the ground with fast wingbeats and a fanned tail. It also hunts from fence posts, telephone poles and branches, and is often seen hunting along roadsides and motorways.