American Kestrel Falcon Falco sparverius

Identification Tips:

• Length: 8.5 inches Wingspan: 21 inches
• Short, dark, hooked beak
• Small, long-tailed hawk
• Long, narrow, pointed wings
• Gray crown
• White cheeks
• Two black mustache marks
• Black spot at rear of crown on both sides
• Seen from below, flight feathers are pale with dark barring
• Juveniles and immature females like adult female

Adult male:

• Rust patch on crown
• Rust nape, breast, back and tail
• Rust tail has a broad black subterminal band and a narrow white terminal band
• Pale belly
• Blue-gray wing coverts
• Dark flight feathers with pale subterminal spots creating a "string of pearls"
• Black spots on scapulars, wing coverts and flanks

Adult female:

• Pale buff breast streaked with brown
• Rust-brown nape, back and wing coverts
• Back and wing coverts barred heavily with black
• Rust-brown tail with numerous dark bars of even width and a narrow white terminal band

Immature male:

• Barred rust-brown back barred heavily with black
• Streaked breast

Similar species:

Sharp-shinned Hawk is of similar size, but has rounded wings and much different patterning. Merlin is larger with broader-based wings, lacks rust tones to back and wing coverts, has a single mustache mark and strongly checkered underwings.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.

Above information used courtesy of United States Geological Survey.  Photo by Fotolia - Discovery