When you’re a small falcon trying to survive in the wild you can’t be too picky about what you’re willing to eat.
When consuming small vertebrate prey American Kestrel eating patterns vary widely. Sometimes they reject the intestines and sometimes they don’t. When eating small birds they sometimes reject their legs and feet but other times they’re consumed with figurative relish. The long bony tails of small rodents may be eaten. Or not.
Long ago I posted other photos of this kestrel enjoying his meal but these two are new to Feathered Photography.
1/1000, f/10, ISO 400, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
This male kestrel at Farmington Bay WMA in winter treated the mouse’s tail as dessert. There’s relatively little nutrition in the long, skinny appendage consisting mostly of skin, hair and bones but when it comes to survival, especially in winter, every little bit counts.
There’s too little meat on the bony tail to make picking it off energy efficient so if it’s to be eaten it must be swallowed whole which is far easier said than done. This bird really struggled to get the tail all the way down the hatch
1/1000, f/10, ISO 400, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
After working on the swallowing process for quite a while he got it far enough down so that only the very tip of the tail protruded out of his mouth but then he retched it all the way back up and had to start all over again. The second time was a charm and eventually he succeeded in getting it down and keeping it down.
It was a tough winter so who knows, maybe that little extra bit of nutrition made the difference in his survival.
Ron
Boy, you would fit right in at the rehab with your titles. We have had some doozies (sp?) in the past. They were never meant to be so, just someone stating an obvious, which had a double entandre. Most of us would be double over with laughter and who ever made the faux pa was scarlet and stuttering to explain what they intended.
Great photo tail and all!
I just used it as an attention-getter, April. After all, it WAS accurate… 🙂
Good to see you this morning and jabber for a few minutes.
A good giggle – I chose not to “go there” this morning……😇
I hope it did give him all he needed to survive. And that his next meal was less retch worthy. Mind you I suspect that piece of tail had more nourishment than many of the food regularly consumed by our species.
Excellent point in your last sentence, EC (says me who’s still munching on a piece of Hershey with almonds for dessert after lunch).
From your post title I was picturing more spring-time activities rather than winter-time. Silly me. I should have remembered who I’m dealing with. 😉😂
Hope this feisty falcon is still going strong. Had about a dozen crows in my yard when I took mamadog out for her morning ablutions. They retreated to my trees, fence top, and nearby telephone poles, but were noisily scolding at 6 a.m. I felt a little bad for them, but not as bad as I would have if I had to clean up after mama inside the house. 😉 BTW, all of the puppies have at least started to open their eyes — finally!
Marty, I used that title as an attention-getter. Apparently it worked… 🙂
Have fun with your pups!
You really should have prefaced this post with what they say on the PBS newshour: “may contain images that are disturbing to some viewers”. Of course, that would have drawn people like me right in to the gory details.
Fascinating “footage”. Thanks for sharing. I think.
“may contain images that are disturbing to some viewers”
Lyle, no blood or guts are visible so I didn’t feel it was necessary. I still don’t…
Have always appreciated Judy’s “Beautiful little Assassin” description of my favorite killer. I work with the Kestrel restoration folks here, but even with all our efforts I think we are still seeing a decline in numbers. Being a biologist you probably have an understanding of how he is going to digest that tail, but to me it looks impossible.
Excellent photos Ron. Kestrels really are beautiful birds.
Thanks, Everett. Kestrel numbers are suffering in many areas, including around here. I blame development and urban sprawl for a lot of it.
Amazing it didn’t choke – about got me retching also…..😬 They do what they have to do! Beautiful little assasin as always….😄
He actually did choke, Judy. Or at least gag a little.
Oh your headline!!! Lol
Glad you appreciated it, Arwen. Apparently some readers didn’t think I knew what my title implied.
I didn’t fall off of the turnip truck yesterday… 🙂
Interesting, I would think they would migrate south where there are tons of rodents for easy picking. Thanks for sharing.
Elmer, in past years rodent numbers around here in winter have been sufficient to sustain a variety of raptors. I’m not so sure that’s true anymore.
Thanks for the morning story photo and chuckle 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it, Terri.