Kestrel: The Farmer's Friend

I was once asked by an interviewer, "If you could come back as an animal, what would you be?"

"If a bird," I replied, "I’d want to be an American kestrel. Why? Just watch one for a while!"

Swift fliers (and they can hover!), resourceful, and spectacular in form and color, kestrels are a delight to behold. They also take well to artificial breeding sites. So if you have the right habitat, put up a nest box designed for this smallest of American falcons and you may be rewarded with hours of enjoyment watching them.

Kestrels are also the agriculturalist's friend. To fuel their high metabolic rate, they munch up to a quarter of their body weight in grasshoppers, mice, voles, and small birds per day. New research now shows that kestrels reduce crop damage by warding off and preying on birds that damage and eat cherries in Michigan orchards. This study found that kestrels save orchardists an estimated $357 worth of cherries for every dollar they spend on installing wooden nest boxes. Now that's a good investment!