{"id":2293,"date":"2021-05-13T04:27:15","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T04:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/?page_id=2293"},"modified":"2021-09-03T11:40:31","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T11:40:31","slug":"se-american-kestrel","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/explore\/longleaf-habitats\/flatwoods\/se-american-kestrel\/","title":{"rendered":"SE American Kestrel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h5><a href=\"\/longleaf\/explore\/longleaf-habitats\/flatwoods\/\">Longleaf Species &#8211; Flatwoods &amp; Savannah<\/a><\/h5>\n<h2>SE American Kestrel<\/h2>\n\t<h3>Southeastern American Kestrel<\/h3>\n\n<p><strong>Status:<\/strong> Vulnerable<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>Southeastern American Kestrels<\/strong> are considered the smallest falcons in North America. But don&#8217;t let their size fool you, they are some powerful predators. Both females and males are an orange-brown color with streaks (markings). Their white cheeks have two black stripes on them and the top of their head is a bluish-gray color. Like most birds, the males have brighter colors to attract females. The wings on the males are bluish-gray while the females have brownish colored wings.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2021\/05\/American_Kestrel_Falco_sparverius_14547482002-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"American_Kestrel_(Falco_sparverius)_(14547482002)\" itemprop=\"image\" height=\"1459\" width=\"2048\" title=\"American_Kestrel_(Falco_sparverius)_(14547482002)\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\"  \/>\n\t<iframe src='https:\/\/www.xeno-canto.org\/341005\/embed?simple=1' scrolling='no' frameborder='0' width='340' height='115'><\/iframe>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2021\/05\/American_Kestrel_and_American_Pipit_2256510207.jpg\" alt=\"American_Kestrel_and_American_Pipit_(2256510207)\" itemprop=\"image\" height=\"1080\" width=\"1620\" title=\"American_Kestrel_and_American_Pipit_(2256510207)\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\"  \/>\n\t<h3>Habitat &amp; Range<\/h3>\n<p>American kestrels can be found in many habitats such as open grasslands, suburban areas (near cities), parks and even forests. Their habitat has been getting destroyed for human use and the kestrels are finding ways to adapt to their changing environments. Unlike any other falcon, the American kestrels are able to nest inside dead tree cavities (holes). In the U.S, these kestrels are located in the southeastern states like Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina. <\/p>\n<h3>Food Web &amp; Energy Flow<\/h3>\n<p>The diet of the southeastern american kestrel includes small birds, rodents, insects, and lizards. In order to spot prey, the kestrels use high perches like wires or phone poles to look for prey. Once the prey is spotted, the kestrel will dive down to the ground to kill it. They rarely capture their prey in the air, they will land on the ground and kill the prey with its talons (claws). The american kestrels are considered secondary consumers and carnivores. <\/p>\n\t<h3>Relationship to Fire<\/h3>\n<p>Southeastern american kestrels rely on frequent fires to maintain a clear forest floor. Since the kestrels use high perches to look for prey,\u00a0 they need a forest floor that is clear and not overcrowded. With frequent fires, the forest floor would be cleared of some plants making it easier to spot small prey. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2020\/08\/fire-bog.jpg\" alt=\"fire-bog\" itemprop=\"image\" height=\"375\" width=\"500\" title=\"fire-bog\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\"  \/>\n\t<h3>Conservation Status<\/h3>\n<p>Due to habitat destruction for land development, the southeastern american kestrels population has been declining over the years. The decrease of controlled fires has caused the understory to become overcrowded making it hard for the kestrels to hunt their prey. The kestrels have an overall Vulnerable conservation status due to the negative human impacts. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2021\/05\/SEkestrel.jpg\" alt=\"State Level Conservation Status - NatureServe\" itemprop=\"image\" height=\"570\" width=\"787\" title=\"SEkestrel\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\"  \/>\n\t\tState Level Conservation Status &#8211; NatureServe\n\t<h3><b><strong>Human Impacts\/ Threats<\/strong><br \/>\n<\/b><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/bb-plugin\/cache\/smokeybear-square.jpg\" alt=\"smokeybear\" itemprop=\"image\" height=\"500\" width=\"500\" title=\"smokeybear\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\"  \/>\n\t\t<h5>Fire Suppression<\/h5>\t\t\n\t\t\t<p>Many people think of fires in the forest as bad, so they work hard to prevent or <em>suppress<\/em> them. But longleaf forests NEED regular fire to support habitat for the species that live there!<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/bb-plugin\/cache\/development-square.jpg\" alt=\"development\" itemprop=\"image\" height=\"1200\" width=\"1600\" title=\"development\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\"  \/>\n\t\t<h5>Land Use Conversion<\/h5>\t\t\n\t\t\t<p>Longleaf forests and the habitat it supports is being cleared or <em>converted<\/em> to use the land for other uses like houses, roads, agriculture, and even to grow different types of trees to sell.<\/p>\n\t<h4>Resources<\/h4>\n\n\n\n\t\t<h3>Hero Journal<\/h3>\t\t\n\t\t\t\n<ul>\n<li><strong>What does it look like?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What does it need to survive?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<strong>Try sketching the species you chose, using scientific drawing techniques.<br \/>\n<\/strong>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"\/longleaf\/explore\/longleaf-habitats\/flatwoods\/\" target=\"_self\" role=\"button\" rel=\"noopener\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBack to Habitat Type\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"\/longleaf\/explore\" target=\"_self\" role=\"button\" rel=\"noopener\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChoose this Species\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2019\/04\/needles-footer.png\" alt=\"needles-footer\" itemprop=\"image\" height=\"339\" width=\"1920\" title=\"needles-footer\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\"  \/>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Longleaf Species &#8211; Flatwoods &amp; Savannah SE American Kestrel Southeastern American Kestrel Status: Vulnerable The Southeastern American Kestrels are considered the smallest falcons in North America. But don&#8217;t let their size fool you, they are some powerful predators. Both females and males are an orange-brown color with streaks (markings). Their white cheeks have two black [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary cf-quest-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/explore\/longleaf-habitats\/flatwoods\/se-american-kestrel\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"parent":1882,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2293","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2293\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}