Common Kestrel

How to identify

Field marks

1. A single prominent black cheek stripe
2. Pale chestnut, with black spots on the back
3. Underparts pale brown, with fine black streaks
4. Cere, legs and feet and the ring around the eye bright yellow

Male, female and young

The male has a blue-gray crown and tail and fewer black spots; the female is larger and has a rufous tail with black barring; juveniles resemble the female.

Similar species

Lesser Kestrel

Lesser Kestrel resembles a smaller Common Kestrel; the male has almost no black on the upperparts except at the wingtips and tail tip.

Where and when it's recorded

Common Kestrel has been recorded at 3,522 of the 8,171 birding hotspots we track, in 132 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. Desembocadura del Guadalhorce – ÁreaSpain4,325 records
2. Lezíria Grande de Vila Franca de Xira – área geralPortugal4,240 records
3. Beddington FarmlandsUnited Kingdom3,738 records

Countries and regions with the most records

United KingdomSpainPortugalChinaIsraelGermanyIndiaGreece

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), also known as the European kestrel, Eurasian kestrel, Old World kestrel, is a species of predatory bird belonging to the kestrel group of the falcon family Falconidae. In the United Kingdom, where no other kestrel species commonly occurs, it is generally just called the "kestrel".

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

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