Talk:American Kestrel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

WikiProject Birds
Birds Portal
American Kestrel is part of WikiProject Birds, an attempt at creating a standardized, informative and easy-to-use ornithological resource. If you would like to participate, visit the project page. Please do not substitute this template.
B This article has been rated as B-Class on the quality scale.
Low This article has been rated as low-importance on the importance scale.
WikiProject Birds To-do:

I've made some changes to the description section, fixing redundancies and adding more detail. I also added three sources, so that should help bring the article closer to encyclopedic quality.

I wonder about the use of the picture of the Kestrel on a phone wire. It's not a very good picture of a Kestrel, as non of the identifying marks can be seen and without those it might as well be a picture of a Peregrine or a Sharp-Shinned Hawk. If we could get a picture of a landed Kestrel, that would be much better. Maleficarum 16:54, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Info requested (sex of bird shown)

Sex?
Sex?
Same bird?
Same bird?

Falco sparverius (American Kestrel) exhibited at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Tucscon, Arizona - Is this a female bird? - Thanks, Leonard G. 03:36, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sparrowhawk etymology reference?

There is no reference given for the claim that the common name "Sparrow Hawk" was used because of confusion with the Eurasian sparrowhawk. I have seen equally plausible alternative explanations for the use of this common name in the past but the claim made here is not backed up with a citation/reference. Can anyone locate a credible source for the etymology of the word sparrowhawk when used in reference to the American kestrel? I'm not going to change the article right away but technically that claim should be removed if there is no citation. My impression is that the origin of the name is unclear at best. Many print encyclopedias do not make strict claims as to the origin of the name. Grizmek's Encyclopedia of Animal life does make the claim that they are sometimes called "grasshopper hawks" because they eat grasshoppers but no claim is made as to the origin of the term "sparrow hawk."

A possible alternative would be to say, "The American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) is a small falcon. This bird was (and sometimes still is) colloquially known in North America as the "Sparrow Hawk". This name is misleading because while there may be a superficial resemblance to an accipiter hawk, the American Kestrel is falcon. Falcons and accipiters are only very distantly related among the diurnal raptors.

If no reference to the etymology of "sparrow hawk" can be located we could also add the phrase, "The exact origin of the name sparrow hawk is unclear and the name is misleading . . ." Kirkmona (talk) 19:23, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Logical Fallacy in the Article

An anon just posted this comment in the article, so I'm moving it here because (s)he may have a point.

"If they don't fly until day 26, how can they disperse from the nest area at two to four weeks old? (Or is this measured in Kestrel days?)"

I think this is all under the Reproduction section. Will try to find refs for this and the Lesser Prarie Chicken later today unless someone wants to hop on in. Rufous-crowned Sparrow (talk) 14:08, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Two possible explanations occur, haven't researched either
  1. The two to four weeks may refer to the period after fledging, rather than the age
  2. Some species of bird, like the Tawny Owl do leave the nest up to ten days before fledging, and sit on the branches - maybe this is what is meant?
jimfbleak (talk) 04:58, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
The problematic sentence is "Generally, young do not disperse more than 0.6 miles (one km) away from the nest area until two to four weeks old." This is why I don't like articles with a bunch of facts and then a reference list at the bottom. We don't have any idea which reference book (if any) this came out of. Terres (1980) page 275 states , "young leave nest 30-31 days after hatching." This agrees with Ehrlich (1988)p.244 Neither say anything about dispersal behavior after fledging. Given that two sources we can cite state that they do not leave the nest until 30-31 days I think we can safely assume the sentence is incorrect. I'll add in the citations I found for fledging time and unless someone can figure out correct info on dispersal after fledging (for example if it is supposed to read, "Generally, young do not disperse more than 0.6 miles (one km) away from the nest area until two to four weeks after fledging." then we should just remove the info as it is clearly incorrect as it reads. Kirkmona (talk) 16:10, 3 June 2008 (UTC)