Joint project of VINS Raptor Center and Vermont Agency of Transportation

Most Vermont travelers along Interstate 89 do not notice the 19 American kestrel (Falco sparverius) nest boxes attached to the back of signs along the highway between Bethel, VT and Highgate, VT. However, to a hand-full of American Kestrels, these boxes are home and a place to raise a family for the summer.

Since 1995 VINS Raptor Center and the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) has been collaborating with the building, installing and maintaining nesting boxes for kestrels. Since the program started 94 kestrels have hatched, and VINS rehabilitation staff have fostered four orphaned young into the highway nest boxes.

Vermont Agency of Transportation Kestrel Program

In 2002 members of the VTrans Environmental Section joined forces with VINS Raptor Center staff to band the kestrel chicks in the highway nest boxes. Raptor Center and VTrans staff banded eleven chicks in 2002. These birds hunt in Vermont's fields and grasslands until the weather gets too cold and they fly south as far away as South America.

Also in 2002, Dr. Scott MacLachlan, VINS Avian Rehabilitation Center Vet and Poultney Veterinarian started collaborating with VTrans District Transportation Administrator Dave Lathrop and District Transportation Foreman Brian Roberts to install new boxes along US Route 4 between Rutland, VT and the New York State line.

Dr. MacLachlan is also working with Poultney youth on building bird-nesting boxes.

Mr. Lathrop and Dr. MacLachlan's vision for enhancing the roadside habitat along Route 4 includes adding additional kestrel boxes as well as bluebird boxes, and perhaps an osprey nesting platform.

In June 2003, VTrans staff along with VINS staff found 18 Kestrel chicks in the nest boxes along I-89.

AMERICAN KESTREL FACT SHEET

Species:American Kestrel, formerly called the Sparrow Hawk, Falco sparverius

Geographic Range: Extreme northern populations migrate as far as Central and South America and breed as far north as the tree line in Alaska and Canada.

Habitat: They live in open country, farmlands, cities and wooded edges of fields, grasslands, marshes, and deserts. They often perch on wires and dead trees. They can be seen hunting in the grassy areas of highway interchanges as they hover then dive onto their prey.

Diet: Kestrels eat small vertebrates and mammals. Sometimes they stoop on small birds and insects in flight. Other times they hunt by hovering over their prey and then diving down to snatch it off the ground. The male often caches food in clumps of grass to feed the female and young. European Kestrels are able to locate rodent runways, as rodent urine is visible under ultraviolet light. No studies have been completed to date as to whether American kestrels can also locate rodent runways in the same manner.

Breeding Habits: The Kestrel pair develops a monogamous bond after having multiple partners as young adults. Once bonded, however, the pair defends its territory year round, or until they migrate. Kestrels lay 4-5 eggs in a tree cavity, adding very little nesting material to the hole. Kestrels are the only North American falcon that regularly nest in cavities. The eggs are pinkish white, sometimes lavender, marked with brown.

Description: Kestrels, the smallest North American falcon, are sexually dimorphic. Males are slate blue above with spots or distinct patch of reddish brown on the head. The back is almost completely reddish brown; the nape is collared with black spots. Under wing, coverts are spotted with black, secondaries slate blue and primaries dark brown. Upper wing coverts are slate blue with black spots. Tail is reddish brown with a black sub-terminal band and white tip. Face and throat are white, with heavy black stripes below and behind eyes. Under parts white with light amber-brown on breast and spotted on sides and flanks with black. Females' back, wing coverts and tail are broadly barred with reddish and dark brown. Under parts are white streaked in cinnamon. Beak blue-black, cere legs and feet yellow to yellow-orange, eyes dark brown. The name "kestrel" comes from the sound of their call, a loud, rapid, high-pitched "kee,kee,kee"

Photos by Chris Slesar, VTrans taken in June 2003.

To obtain American Kestrel nest box plans email: astark@vinsweb.org or obtain on-line at Kestrels Across America