American Kestrels:
What's Happening to North America's Smallest Falcons?
American Kestrels are a Conservation Priority
A Long-Term Decline Regionally & Nationally
American Kestrel populations have declined across much of North America since at least the 1960s. Recent research suggests that continental numbers fell by nearly 30 percent between 1986 and 2019.
The decline has been even more dramatic in the Mid-Atlantic, which is one of the most heavily developed regions in the country. It is also an important breeding and migration area for American Kestrels. Regional survey data indicate that Mid-Atlantic kestrel populations have fallen by more than 90 percent over approximately five decades. Kestrels have not disappeared, but in many places they are far less common than they were a generation ago. They can still be found in suitable farmland and natural grasslands such as meadows.
Kestrels are a Conservation Priority in the Piedmont
In Virginia, kestrels are most often found in open areas of the Piedmont, Shenandoah Valley, and Allegheny Highlands. The species is recognized as a conservation priority, with current efforts focused on protecting agricultural landscapes, studying pesticide exposure, and better understanding predation and survival.
Visit the Cornell Lab for Ornithology or our resources section to learn more about these small but fierce raptors.
Why are they declining?
There is no single explanation. Scientists believe several threats are acting together:
Loss of Open Habitat
Kestrels need large, open areas with native vegetation, abundant prey, and scattered hunting perches. When fields and pastures are converted into subdivisions, shopping centers, roads, or dense forest, kestrels lose the space they need to hunt. Even land that remains agricultural may become less suitable when hedgerows, field edges, and patches of rough grass are removed.
Fewer Nest Site Options Available
Kestrels cannot build or excavate their own nest holes. Instead, they raise their young in natural tree cavities, old woodpecker holes, buildings, or specially designed nest boxes. This dependence on both open hunting habitat and safe nesting cavities makes them especially vulnerable to changes in the landscape. Removing aging trees and replacing older farm buildings reduces the number of safe places available for nesting. Nest boxes can help, but only when they are placed in high-quality habitat with sufficient predator guards and monitoring.
Pesticides and a Declining Prey Base
They depend on open habitats with herbaceous vegetation and scattered perches that provide access to grasshoppers, beetles, cicadas, voles, mice, lizards, and other small animals. During warmer months, kestrels eat large numbers of insects. Insecticides may reduce the abundance of grasshoppers, beetles, and other important prey. Kestrels may also be exposed directly to agricultural chemicals or indirectly through contaminated prey. Researchers are studying the possible effects of neonicotinoid insecticides and anticoagulant rodenticides.
Low Survival After Leaving the Nest
2026 research published in EcoSphere suggests that juvenile survival and adult survival may be declining. Young kestrels face difficult conditions as they learn to hunt, disperse into unfamiliar areas, avoid predators, and search for suitable habitat.
Predators and Nest Competitors
Adult kestrels are only about the size of a mourning dove and weigh as little as a deck of cards. While they are skilled hunters, they are also small enough to be preyed upon by larger birds. Cooper’s Hawks and other predators may kill adult or juvenile kestrels, particularly near wooded areas. Also European Starlings, squirrels, and other animals often compete with kestrels for nest cavities and nest boxes.
What can we do?
The good news is that kestrels often respond well when suitable habitat and safe nesting sites are protected.
Protect Open Land
Preserving grasslands, pastures, meadows, and low-intensity farmland is one of the most important actions we can take.
Kestrels benefit from landscapes with grasslands, scattered trees, fence posts, utility lines, and undisturbed field edges.
Keep Safe Nesting Sites
Where it is safe to do so, retain dead trees, cavity trees, and older structures that provide nesting opportunities. Property owners can also install properly designed nest boxes in open habitat. Boxes should be monitored and maintained to reduce competition, disease, and predation. A nest box placed in poor habitat will not solve the problem. Kestrels need both a place to nest and enough surrounding land to hunt.
Reduce Harmful Chemical Use
Avoid unnecessary pesticide use, especially broad-spectrum insecticides that reduce the insects kestrels depend on. Choose safer rodent-control methods whenever possible, and avoid second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides, which can poison predators that eat contaminated rodents. Nest boxes should never be placed on the landscape where rodenticides are in use.
Support Kestrel-Friendly Farming
Farmers and landowners can help by maintaining grassy field borders, hedgerows, pastureland, hunting perches, and nest boxes. These practices can support kestrels and other grassland birds, while also benefiting pollinators and other wildlife.
Are you are a farmer interested in learning more about how to support grassland bird populations while still meeting your production goals? Check out the Virginia Grassland Bird Initiative at https://www.vagrasslandbirds.org/
Participate in Community Science
Observations submitted through bird-monitoring programs can help scientists track changes in kestrel distribution and abundance. Volunteers can also assist with nest-box monitoring, banding projects, habitat restoration, and educational programs.
Support Research
Banding, nest monitoring, and wildlife-tracking technology are helping researchers understand where kestrels travel and when mortality occurs. This information is essential for designing conservation programs that protect birds throughout the entire year—not only during nesting season.
Protect the Future for Kestrels
American Kestrels are resilient birds. In the right habitat, they can reproduce successfully and adapt to living near farms, towns, and transportation corridors.
But nest boxes alone cannot reverse their decline. Kestrels need healthy open landscapes, abundant prey, safe nesting sites, and protection from harmful chemicals.
By conserving the places where kestrels hunt, nest, and raise their young, we can help keep these remarkable falcons in the Mid-Atlantic sky.
Managed Nest Boxes
Our team works with Blue Ridge Technical Center (BRTC) to build custom nest boxes out of cedar and install them on farms throughout the region. In our five county area we have monitoring teams who visit boxes regularly throughout the active breeding season of March-July.
Our data is entered into the Cornell Ornithology Lab's NestWatch system and used by scientists to enhance our understanding of these birds and develop conservation guidelines to protect their future.
Read this Cornell report on the Virginia Grassland Birds Initiative