Birdland: The Smallest Falcon
The American Kestrel is about 10 ½” long and has a wingspan of just under two feet. Sometimes called a Sparrow Hawk, it the smallest falcon and is the only Kestrel found in the Americas. As the Cornell Lab of Ornithology notes, males have slate-blue wings, and females’ wings are reddish brown. Both sexes have black vertical slashes on the sides of their pale faces, called “moustaches” and “sideburns.” This female American Kestrel was photographed at Bluff Lake Wildlife Refuge by Park Hill resident Mark Silverstein.