Common Kestrel - Question about prey (and prey ID question) (1 Viewer)

[David_]

Hi,

I took these pictures of the remains of a kestrels prey. The size of remaining feathers and especially the feet make me think of a galliform. By the color of the feet possibly a Common Pheasant?
Whatever bird it was, was probably too big to have been killed by a kestrel, so my best guess would be that the kestrel picked it up part of a roadkill. Is this a common thing with Kestrels? I have watched them last year raising their fledglings with orthoptera and mice but have never seen a Kestrel carrying larger prey.

 

[ApusApus]

Hi,

I took these pictures of the remains of a kestrels prey. The size of remaining feathers and especially the feet make me think of a galliform. By the color of the feet possibly a Common Pheasant?
Whatever bird it was, was probably too big to have been killed by a kestrel, so my best guess would be that the kestrel picked it up part of a roadkill. Is this a common thing with Kestrels? I have watched them last year raising their fledglings with orthoptera and mice but have never seen a Kestrel carrying larger prey.

View attachment 1451253View attachment 1451254

Hi David

In the absence of replies I will give you my 2 euros worth. I am not sure what the prey is but I would think that anything the size of a Pheasant would be too big for a Kestrel to lift. The largest prey I have seen taken by a Kestrel was a full grown mole and even then it struggled to maintain flight and ended up dropping to the ground! As a comparison, female Sparrowhawks can take prey upto the size of Wood Pigeons but the males, similar in size to Kestrels, can only handle smaller prey like finches, and maybe thrushes.

That leaves the question of how did the prey get up into the nest box and that I have no answer for?

Maybe my response will prompt others with more experience to come forward!


Shane

 

[David_]

That leaves the question of how did the prey get up into the nest box

Maybe the Kestrel did only take a part of a roadkill? I can‘t imagine any other bird of prey bringing it there. I think the pair of Kestrels would have driven the other BoP out of their territory or left the nest box for another one if they could not prevent the BoP from feeding on their nest box (there are a few in the area which they have used before my parents neighbors put up this one).