A Falcon's First Flight

In my “Critters” post on November 30, 2008, I wrote about the falcons snatching barn swallows as they dove into their hideout in the eaves of the house. At least that is what I thought they were doing. Shortly after that posting, we noticed that the falcons were actually entering the eaves of the house. I thought they were going in there for an all they could eat barn swallow buffet, but that was before we noticed they were already carrying food, usually snakes they had caught. Then we started to hear the chirping. It was a new sound. We would hear the scraping of talons and crashing of wings as the falcon entered, then the chirping would begin. It sounded like babies begging for food. And indeed it was. Over the following weeks, the chirping at feeding times got louder and louder as the babies grew. Finally, on New Year’s Eve day, I was summoned to the back yard by Cesar. He always calls me whenever he finds some odd animal – or something too gross to pick up (that’s my job). He had noticed a bird on the ground that would not move as he approached. Perhaps there was something wrong with it. I immediately recognized it as the baby of the falcons. There was nothing wrong with it; it was just on its first voyage out of the nest and hadn’t quite gotten its wings yet. In the next couple of days we noticed another baby. We think there are only two, because we have only seen two falcon babies at a time, but the American Kestrel can have up to seven eggs in a clutch.

Baby falcon close-up

The American Kestrel has an incredible range, from Alaska all the way to Tierra del Fuego in Argentina. It is also known as the sparrow hawk, because of its small size. Its scientific name, Falco sparverius, means "falcon of the sparrows." However, it is a member of the falcon family and is closely related to the Peregrine Falcon. The color on these birds is fantastic. With rufous back and tail, white speckled belly, dramatic black face markings and slate blue on its wings, it is the most colorful of the birds of prey. The American Kestrel nests in cavities not of their own making, like our house, and may return to the same nesting locations year after year.

The young falcons’ flying is improving each day. Their landings are still a little rough, but we can see improvement. I suspect their parents were living here before we came along. We enjoy sharing the house with them and hope they like it enough to stick around and maybe have next year’s young here.

Baby falcon in pine tree