It might seem like an obsession, maybe it is to some degree I suppose, but just like the title suggests I’m going to try and photograph every American kestrel I can get in front of my camera for the foreseeable future, regardless of its location or if it lacks any artistic potential for the image.
There is a very specific purpose for this endeavor, mind you, one that actually goes far beyond my daily task of just obtaining a well-composed photograph or an interesting story for this website and it could actually help biologists, in a small but positive way, understand kestrel populations if enough data is eventually gathered.
By photographing every American kestrel I can find, there is an opportunity to document individual birds that have been previously marked with brightly colored leg bands and report these sightings to the Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL) in an effort to help researchers understand American kestrel movements and survival rates, among other important biological data when compared to original capture and all sighting locations and dates.
Quite possibly the hardest part of managing wildlife is simply knowing when and where individual animals reside throughout the year, and with birds that information is ever more so difficult to obtain due to their ease of mobility through flight and the resulting challenges of following birds through their constant movements and bi-annual migrations.
One of the ways researchers have dealt with this obstacle is to capture, band, and release birds back into the wild with brightly colored leg markers that have a unique number on them, forever identifying these specific birds to anyone fortunate enough to cross paths with a tagged individual.
Birds of all sizes and species, including American Kestrels, have been banded over the years, many of them with these brightly colored leg tags so they can be visually identified from a distance and without the need for recapture and this is the part where you and I come in, where we can, in fact, help the biologists understand kestrels better by reporting these observations.
Even if you’re not a photographer, this is something that anyone, you, me, and all other birders out there, can take part in on future birdwatching trips, even without the aid of a camera, to actually help with what is said to be a declining kestrel population.
All that is needed is a pair of binoculars or a spotting scope to get a good view of the bird and a notebook to record the gender if known, the leg band number, its color, which leg it was on, and the date and location of the sighting and all of that info is then sent to the BBL where it is kept and compared with historical data for each bird banded, allowing for a whole plethora of information to be learned about migratory birds.
I have personally observed several banded kestrels over the past few years, some on Farmington Bay WMA and others on Antelope Island, but it’s my most recent leg-banded kestrel observation, one that took place on the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge last week, that has spawned this desire to find, photograph, and report any and all leg-banded kestrels to the Bird Banding Laboratory that I can find on my travels.
If you’ve read my previous blog posts about the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and their efforts to help kestrel numbers by erecting nesting boxes on refuge property, then you know I am deeply invested in and passionate about these smallest of North American falcons.
Suffice it to say, I wasn’t aware there were any American kestrel banding efforts in the local area of the refuge and, honestly, there might not be which means this individual bird is most likely a migrant of some sort, and since I haven’t previously observed a leg-banded kestrel on the refuge, this particular encounter definitely caught me by surprise and has fueled my desire to find and report leg-banded kestrels.
Unfortunately, the only image I was able to obtain from last week’s encounter didn’t allow me to read the numbers and report the sighting, yet, that is to say, but I am very bound and determined to find and photograph this kestrel again and again, however long it takes until I can get the number and send the info to the BBL.
There is a good chance it is one of the regional kestrels banded by Hawkwatch International, and if it’s so the number will be reported to their website as well, once I cross paths with the handsome fellow again that is.
So if you are out and about on a birdwatching trip and come across an American kestrel, take a close look at their legs and report any readable numbers to the Bird Banding Laboratory so researchers can further understand these fascinating falcons a lot more.
You can also take some satisfaction that with every banded bird reported to the BBL you are helping biologists understand birds so, in effect, you are literally helping the birds themselves.
If you are a birdwatcher or nature photographer of any kind, we offer you to head on over to our subscribe page and sign up for email notifications for future blog posts regarding our passion for birds, nature, and photography on and off of the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.
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