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Larger birds are convenient to observe now – the trees are bare and the snow is melting in meadows and fields.

 

Today the kestrel is a rather rare nesting bird in Estonia but during the season of passing migrants the chances to see them are greater. They hunt in cultured landscapes, surveying the surroundings from power posts or lines. It is a small falcon family bird, weighing around a few hundred grams. In the middle of a chase it stops in flight and „treads the wind“ or hovers in the air. If the back plumage is reddish-brown it is almost certainly a kestrel. The male and female have slightly differing plumage colours. The head and the long tail are grey, the tip of the tail black with a white band.
In hovering, the tail spreads like a splendid fan – the tail brake is on.

Food is small rodents, it is no danger for passerines because it simply can’t catch them. It may hunt frogs and lizards.

 

Note: Its Estonian name, tuuletallaja, means "treader of the wind"