# Kestrel surprise: silly thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Nature Talk\ **Created:** [July 12, 2022, 10:37pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/kestrel-surprise-silly-thread/33504 "2022-07-12T22:37:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elpatitojuan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ec9cab/32.png) [@elpatitojuan2](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/elpatitojuan2)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2022, 10:37pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/kestrel-surprise-silly-thread/33504/1 "2022-07-12T22:37:11Z")
This is another very silly thread with few importance, it’s just something curious that surprised me personally. Just for curiosity I was checking falcon iNat observations around the World, and surprisingly, the American kestrel is the most observed! 47,048 observations!!! That’s way more than the peregrine falcon! How is that possible if the peregrine falcon lives around the entire globe? [https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place\_id=38&subview=map&taxon\_id=4638&view=species](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=38&subview=map&taxon_id=4638&view=species) ---
**Author:** ![schizoform](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/schizoform/32/3992_2.png) [@schizoform](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/schizoform)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2022, 10:45pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/kestrel-surprise-silly-thread/33504/2 "2022-07-12T22:45:18Z")
people with money and time to document wildlife photos tend to be American ---
**Author:** ![elpatitojuan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ec9cab/32.png) [@elpatitojuan2](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/elpatitojuan2)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2022, 10:47pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/kestrel-surprise-silly-thread/33504/3 "2022-07-12T22:47:04Z")
But peregrines still are very common in America and can be found in places where the kestrels don’t live. ---
**Author:** ![elpatitojuan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ec9cab/32.png) [@elpatitojuan2](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/elpatitojuan2)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2022, 10:49pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/kestrel-surprise-silly-thread/33504/4 "2022-07-12T22:49:13Z")
And the second most observed falcon is the Eurasian kestrel… ---
**Author:** ![lappelbaum](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/lappelbaum/32/7312_2.png) [@lappelbaum](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/lappelbaum)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2022, 11:08pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/kestrel-surprise-silly-thread/33504/5 "2022-07-12T23:08:25Z")
Maybe they come near to human homes more frequently than peregrines ---
**Author:** ![elpatitojuan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ec9cab/32.png) [@elpatitojuan2](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/elpatitojuan2)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2022, 11:16pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/kestrel-surprise-silly-thread/33504/6 "2022-07-12T23:16:03Z")
Hmmmmm maybe. But aren’t they more like… umm, rural birds, from ranches, farms, etc? ---
**Author:** ![schizoform](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/schizoform/32/3992_2.png) [@schizoform](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/schizoform)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2022, 11:18pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/kestrel-surprise-silly-thread/33504/7 "2022-07-12T23:18:28Z")
Kestrels may be less confusable with other species than Peregrines? ---
**Author:** ![elpatitojuan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ec9cab/32.png) [@elpatitojuan2](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/elpatitojuan2)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2022, 11:19pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/kestrel-surprise-silly-thread/33504/8 "2022-07-12T23:19:00Z")
Could be. Although peregrines seem to be way more famous. ---
**Author:** ![lappelbaum](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/lappelbaum/32/7312_2.png) [@lappelbaum](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/lappelbaum)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2022, 11:46pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/kestrel-surprise-silly-thread/33504/9 "2022-07-12T23:46:41Z")
I only know from my own experience of seeing American kestrels sitting on powerlines and fenceposts in areas somewhere between houses shoved together strictly green lawns suburban and ranches/farms rural. The only places I have seen peregrines are on sitting on powerline poles way out in very rural areas while out birding. They are only here in winter and seem to hang out where the ducks overwinter which is often rice fields and crawfish farms. Sometimes fields for other crops like sugarcane. ---
**Author:** ![elpatitojuan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ec9cab/32.png) [@elpatitojuan2](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/elpatitojuan2)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2022, 11:54pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/kestrel-surprise-silly-thread/33504/10 "2022-07-12T23:54:13Z")
Maybe it’s just a stereotype of mine about kestrels. > [@lappelbaum](#): > > The only places I have seen peregrines are on sitting on powerline poles way out in very rural areas while out birding. I regularly see them in very urban areas, so maybe they take on different habitats depending on the location. ---
**Author:** ![lappelbaum](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/lappelbaum/32/7312_2.png) [@lappelbaum](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/lappelbaum)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2022, 11:57pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/kestrel-surprise-silly-thread/33504/11 "2022-07-12T23:57:16Z")
Kestrel on a church steeple: [https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/104429137](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/104429137) I don’t have a peregrine on iNat, not sure if I have a photo of one, but here is a caracara on a power pole in the sort of area I might see a peregrine: [https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/8940245](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/8940245) ---
**Author:** ![lappelbaum](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/lappelbaum/32/7312_2.png) [@lappelbaum](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/lappelbaum)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 12:00am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/kestrel-surprise-silly-thread/33504/12 "2022-07-13T00:00:11Z")
I think maybe the ones that are here in the winter are the same ones that breed on the arctic tundra and the ones in the cities are there all year round. I’ve never been to a big city with peregrines. Aren’t they usually high up on the buildings or in the sky? Seems they would be less noticeable up there. ---
**Author:** ![elpatitojuan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ec9cab/32.png) [@elpatitojuan2](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/elpatitojuan2)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 12:08am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/kestrel-surprise-silly-thread/33504/13 "2022-07-13T00:08:26Z")
> [@lappelbaum](#): > > Seems they would be less noticeable up there Good point. ---
**Author:** ![neylon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/neylon/32/7926_2.png) [@neylon](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/neylon)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 12:18am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/kestrel-surprise-silly-thread/33504/14 "2022-07-13T00:18:30Z")
I can’t speak to the rest of the world but in my area (IL, US), there is only one place where you can consistently see Peregrines (a building downtown where they nest), but I see Kestrels every time that I drive into farmland. So for a lot of people seeing PEFA is going to be very much luck of the draw unless you’re actually going to see them, but AMKE are all over the place. Not far from me, there’s even a nesting pair of kestrels in a neighborhood in town, in the type of place that you’d more expect to find Merlins or Cooper’s Hawks. Kind of makes me wonder if they are going to follow the trend that so many other birds of prey have taken and become more urban. [https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/123203006](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/123203006) ---
**Author:** ![elpatitojuan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ec9cab/32.png) [@elpatitojuan2](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/elpatitojuan2)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 1:01am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/kestrel-surprise-silly-thread/33504/15 "2022-07-13T01:01:20Z")
Here where I live in the Yucatan peninsula we have exactly the opposite, there’s only one spot in the city where birders see kestrels (I’m still yet to see one), but when peregrines come to winter, they are everywhere. But in the Western parts of the peninsula kestrels seem to be more common. And now it’s time to add a third species: the merlin. What is the merlin doing here now. the thing is that it has only eighty obs. in the peninsula, when the peregrine has 167 and the kestrel 168. But I see merlins here way way way way waaaaaaaaay more often than peregrines and kestrels. What on Earth is going on??? Well, for now let’s focus only on the peregrine-kestrel dilemma. ---
**Author:** ![earthknight](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/earthknight/32/32879_2.png) [@earthknight](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/earthknight)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 1:45am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/kestrel-surprise-silly-thread/33504/16 "2022-07-13T01:45:33Z")
I think the numbers give a pretty clear reason: The North American population of American Kestrels is estimated to be around 1.2 million pairs (so 2.4 million individuals, plus immature non-breeding pairs), with a similar population in South America (although the overwintering population in North America may be substantially smaller). The _global_ population of Peregrine Falcons is estimated to be 248,000-478,000 mature individuals, and the USA/Canada population is estimated to be around 72,000 individuals. There are vastly more American Kestrels out there to observe. ---
**Author:** ![elpatitojuan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ec9cab/32.png) [@elpatitojuan2](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/elpatitojuan2)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 2:16am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/kestrel-surprise-silly-thread/33504/17 "2022-07-13T02:16:53Z")
WHAT?? So few peregrines? I thought there were at least a million around, I mean, they’re fairly common anywhere. I honestly wasn’t expecting this at all, but that’s the answer: the kestrel population is way larger than the peregrine population. I did some searching and found out that the estimated global breeding kestrel population is of 9.2 MILLION. That’s insane. ---
**Author:** ![dlevitis](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/dlevitis/32/78796_2.png) [@dlevitis](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/dlevitis)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 4:28am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/kestrel-surprise-silly-thread/33504/18 "2022-07-13T04:28:37Z")
I pay a lot of attention to Kestrels and Peregrines because two of my kids are named after these falcons. Everywhere I’ve been that has both, the American Kestrel is far more numerous than the Peregrine, and also more prone to sit still as humans approach close enough to get photos. In addition, kestrels are fairly common backyard birds in many parts of the US, while there are few places where the same could be said of Peregrines. ---
**Author:** ![marina\_gorbunova](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/marina_gorbunova/32/31454_2.png) [@marina\_gorbunova](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/marina_gorbunova)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 5:18am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/kestrel-surprise-silly-thread/33504/19 "2022-07-13T05:18:39Z")
iNat is American, so that’s why every NA species has much more observations for years people there were observing. ---
**Author:** ![marina\_gorbunova](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/marina_gorbunova/32/31454_2.png) [@marina\_gorbunova](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/marina_gorbunova)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 5:19am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/kestrel-surprise-silly-thread/33504/20 "2022-07-13T05:19:42Z")
M, no, Peregrines are in red lists pretty much everywhere, at least in the Old World, it’s a very rare bird here. [Next page](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/kestrel-surprise-silly-thread/33504.md?page=2)