U.S., CA- Are American Kestrels declining? (1 Viewer)

Lately, on my birding trips, I have been seeing less and less American Kestrels. I think that it may be due to the pesticides in the insects they feed on, but any other factors due to this disappearance would be helpful. This bird is common in my area (at least in past years), but is now less so.

Same with Common Kestrel here - pesticides and intensive agriculture (too 'tidy', with no rough grass left for voles & mice) resulting in declines.

Actually, apart from a handful of species that can eat the crop itself (over here, Woodpigeons, wintering geese), pretty much everything is declining on farmland. The problem is that most farmers aren't willing to share even 0.01% of their land's biological productivity with wildlife, they insist on it all for themselves. Typical human greed.

I agree with you on the greed and supremacy of humans. I hope conservationists can work to rise their populations again. It is sad how most humans view the earth as a resource, and that they think that while we destroy a planet, we can still live on it. I don't see how people can destroy such a majestic creature as a kestrel.

Most of them don't actively 'destroy' kestrels - they just use combine harvesters that are so efficient that they do not drop one single grain of wheat. That means no food for rodents, which means in turn no food for kestrels.

Older combines used to miss lots of grain - any stems that had blown over / broken weren't picked up, so leaving plenty of food around.