Live from the kestrel box
Three successful broods in the last four years: A pair of kestrels now regularly raises its offspring on our Fassberg Campus. But what does such a breeding and rearing process look like? Thanks to our kestrel box with an integrated camera, we could follow our kestrel family live last year.
Built by our Carpentry and equipped with technology by our IT & Electronics Service, the new nesting box was ready for its tenants in March 2024. Not long after that, the pair of kestrels moved into the box high up on tower 6. Last year’s brood was especially large – from each of the six eggs hatched a fluffy chick. Thanks to a built-in camera, we could follow the rearing of the little “gang” of six around the clock for the first time.
The kestrel camera will be running again in 2025. To bridge the gap, we have compiled the best moments from 2024 from over 900 hours of video footage. See how our kestrel pair moved into their home in the BioDiversum, hatched six eggs, and successfully raised the chicks.
Good to know:
1. Differentiate male / female: You can recognize the male kestrel by its light grey head and light grey tail feathers with a black terminal band. The female is reddish-brown with dark horizontal bands on the back and tail.
2. Egg deposition: Kestrels usually lay three to five (a maximum of seven) eggs at intervals of one to two days.
3. Incubation & hatching: The “actual” incubation – mainly by the female – only begins from the second last or last egg so that all the chicks hatch at the same time if possible. During incubation, the male supplies the female with food, such as mice. The young then hatch after around 27 to 29 days.
4. Rearing: It is quite natural that not all chicks leave the nest. The smallest and weakest of the siblings usually find it difficult to assert themselves. Breeding success depends heavily on food supply and weather conditions. It can also happen that deceased chicks are fed to the remaining young – which sounds cruel but is normal and sensible for the parents given their costly food procurement. That increases the chances of survival for the remaining young.
5. Moving out: After about four weeks of rearing, the young take their first flight exercises – they fledge and become more independent step by step over the following weeks until they are ready to hunt independently and look for their own territory. The young falcons are no longer fed by their parents. Only sporadically do they visit the "parental home". In July / August, the family bond gradually dissolves and the offspring fly out into the big wide world.