Live from the kestrel box

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 can follow our kestrel family live.

Built by our Carpentry and equipped with technology by our IT & Electronics Service and the Facility Management, 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. Their brood was especially large – from each of the six eggs hatched a fluffy chick. Thanks to a built-in camera, we were able to follow the rearing of the kestrel chicks around the clock for the first time.

The Kestrel Camera was back in operation in 2025. Two chicks hatched from the six eggs and left their parents’ nest in early June as impressive young birds.

A look back at our Kestrel Camera

Kestrel Camera 2025

A kestrel rests on a wooden nesting box attached to a wall.

Dates at a glance

April 8: First egg laid
April 18: Sixth egg laid
May 13: Two chicks hatched
June 9: First flight

Two bird tails on a surface made of wood chips.

A kestrel looks at an egg lying between its legs.

A kestrel sits on wood chips in the sunlight, with an egg beneath it.

A male kestrel in a wooden box with two eggs and wood shavings.

Female kestrel sitting in a nest with a newly hatched chick.

A female kestrel in a nest with two hatched chicks and several eggs on wood shavings.

A kestrel sits protectively on several eggs and two chicks in a nest. The bird is alert and watches over its young.

Two fluffy chicks snuggle up on brown eggs in a nest made of wood shavings and sleep.

A female kestrel sits in a nest with two fluffy chicks on a bed of wood chips and cuddles them.

Two fluffy chicks playfully teasing each other next to several brown eggs on wood shavings.

Male kestrel watches his fluffy chicks next to an unhatched egg in the nest.

Kestrel chick being fed in the nest by its mother.

Two kestrel chicks in their nest with their first feathers, one of the chicks eating a mouse on its own.

Two young kestrels in a nesting box with lots of feathers and little down. One of the birds is practicing flying and flapping its wings.

Kestrel Camera 2024

Dates at a glance

April 15: First egg laid
April 26: Sixth egg laid
May 20: First chick hatched
May 22: Sixth chick hatched
June 20: First flight

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 <em>BioDiversum</em>, hatched six eggs, and successfully raised the chicks.

Best of: Kestrel Camera 2024

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfDJFsB1vo8

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. It is not unusual for not all eggs to hatch. That may, among other things, be due to unfertilized eggs, genetic abnormalities, or suboptimal breeding conditions, such as unfavorable weather or limited food availability.
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.