American kestrel

Falco sparverius · Falconidae

The American kestrel is the smallest and most common falcon in the Americas. Though it has been called the American "sparrow hawk", this now obsolete vernacular name is a misnomer; the American kestrel is a true falcon, while neither the Eurasian sparrowhawk nor the other species called sparrowhawks are in the family Falconidae, hence only very distantly related to the American kestrel. It has a roughly two-to-one range in size over subspecies and sex, varying in size from about the weight of a blue jay to a mourning dove.

Where the American kestrel lives

Recorded in United States of America, Canada, Mexico and Argentina (North America and South America).

Most records fall in California, Texas, Florida, Utah, Oregon and Ontario.

See the American kestrel’s range on the globe

Conservation status

Least concern (LC). Not at risk: it is doing well in the wild. Categories are the IUCN Red List as republished by GBIF.

Sources

The range is a density of 5,947,952 georeferenced GBIF records, not an expert-drawn map. Description from Wikipedia.