We've had five American Kestrels hanging out in our yard for past 3-4 days--they seem to be a family unit(?); always hanging out with each other(see photo below); always looking out for each other(?); and hunting collectively(?).
Family unit: We had one fly into window (and survived thankfully-we have window decals, too); was on back; two other kestrels flew to bird; one landed right next to bird; this bird touched its wing and the injured bird stood up; it took about 15 minutes for the injured bird to recover from stun; during that 15 minutes each of the four other kestrels took turns and flew to recovering bird to "check in" on health status--pretty AMAZING to watch for us. As far as hunting; they would each fly across yard to stir large flocks in our yard; we saw three Western Meadowlarks get attacked and eaten by the five (see videos below). One meadowlark was knocked out of the air by kestrel; another meadowlark on ground got stunned by a diving kestrel and the third was pounced on quickly by two of the kestrels. The other interesting behavior was all five kestrels looking to perch on our eves--like swallows. Here are four kestrels together: http://coloradobirder.ning.com/photo/img-5702 Videos of kestrels eating meadowlarks: http://coloradobirder.ning.com/video/american-kestrels-feasting-on-western-meadowlark1 http://coloradobirder.ning.com/video/american-kestrels-feasting-on-western-meadowlark2 http://coloradobirder.ning.com/video/american-kestrels-feasting-on-western-meadowlark3 A great afternoon in bird behavior. Thanks Gary Lefko, Nunn http://coloradobirder.ning.com Mobile: http://coloradobirder.ning.com/m -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
