The Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) is the small falcon that hovers motionless over field edges, scanning the ground for voles — Sweden's most common falcon. It is a medium-sized raptor measuring 32–39 cm in length, with a wingspan of about 65–82 cm and a weight of 150–300 grams, with a long tail and narrow, pointed wings. The male has a blue-grey head and tail with a broad black terminal band, a brick-red, black-spotted back and a pale, dark-streaked underside; the female and juveniles are more uniformly rust-brown with dense dark barring on back and tail. Its most distinctive trait, though, is behavioural: the kestrel "hovers," holding a fixed position in the air on rapidly beating wings with tail dropped, intently watching the ground below.
The call is a sharp, shrill and whining "kli-kli-kli-kli," repeated rapidly in a series of five to ten notes that carries far over open country; a deeper, more drawn-out "kiij… kiij… kiij" is sometimes heard during courtship. The Common Kestrel vocalises mainly around the nest site and is otherwise fairly quiet — young birds give a persistent "tsji-tsji-tsji" when begging for food. It occurs throughout Sweden and is one of the country's commonest raptors, with a population of just over ten thousand pairs that fluctuates with vole abundance, its principal prey. Most are short-distance migrants wintering in Western and Southern Europe, though some remain in the south during mild winters. The kestrel builds no nest of its own, instead using old crow nests, cliff ledges, cavities in buildings and church towers, or purpose-built boxes; the female lays 4–6 eggs, clutch size tracking vole numbers, and incubates alone for about a month while the male hunts and supplies her. Besides voles it also takes mice, lizards, large insects and small birds, hunting by hovering before dropping onto prey it can detect partly through its ability to see ultraviolet light, which reveals voles' urine-marked trails in vegetation.
Read about this species in Swedish →