{"id":44415,"date":"2017-01-16T06:00:47","date_gmt":"2017-01-16T13:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=44415"},"modified":"2025-11-22T09:58:42","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T15:58:42","slug":"pale-chested-american-kestrel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/01\/16\/pale-chested-american-kestrel\/","title":{"rendered":"Pale-chested American Kestrel – Variability in the Underparts of Male American Kestrels"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pale-chestedPale-chested American Kestrel in Box Elder County – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 400, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

On my post about the Prairie Falcon with prey in Box Elder County<\/span><\/a>, Utah I mentioned that I had seen some American Kestrels.<\/p>\n

I was only able to photograph one of the many kestrels I saw and I thought that he was beautiful if not somewhat unique.<\/p>\n

The male American Kestrel caught my eye immediately because he has such a pale chest that the spots on his chest stood out like tiny black jewels set in a field of snow white.<\/p>\n

The only other time I have seen an American Kestrel with a chest this pale was in Florida.<\/p>\n

Birds of North America online<\/span><\/a> (BNA) says this about Male American Kestrels:<\/p>\n

Underparts pale buff to pinkish or orange; amount of streaking and spotting highly variable.<\/em><\/p>\n

And further down their page on the appearance of American Kestrels:<\/p>\n

Considerable disagreement on how much of the variability in kestrel plumage is age-related. Bent (Bent 1938b) suggested that males become less barred dorsally, less spotted ventrally, with a more rufous tail through successive molts; Parkes (Parkes 1955a) presented contrary evidence. It is not known with certainty whether tips of rectrices in males become successively lighter.<\/em><\/p>\n

I saw the same American Kestrel yesterday and I could easily tell that it was him because of his pale chest. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to photograph him because he took off immediately.<\/p>\n

\"MaleMale American Kestrel in flight on a very gray day – Nikon D200, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 320, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 328mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of the male American Kestrels I see here in northern Utah show more buff to orange coloration on their underparts than the male I photographed in Box Elder County. The male above was photographed at Farmington Bay WMA on a very gray, foggy morning and he shows more color in his underparts. I wanted to include this photo of a different male for comparison.<\/p>\n

I love to notice the small things like variations in plumage when I am out photographing birds. It keeps me on my toes.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my American Kestrel photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n

Bent, A. C. 1938b. Life histories of North American Birds of Prey (Part 2). Orders Falconiformes and Strigiformes. Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus. (170):viii-482. <\/em><\/p>\n

Parkes, K. C. 1955a. Notes on the molts and plumages of the Sparrow Hawk. Wilson Bull. no. 67:194-199. <\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The male American Kestrel caught my eye immediately because he has such a pale chest that the spots on his chest stood out like tiny black jewels set in a field of snow white. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":164533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[152,27,1148,1022,697,26],"tags":[4004,155,2663,4982,4098,4199,4078,4279,898,6276,4892,4062,5604,4104,1053,10922,5605,373],"class_list":["post-44415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-kestrel","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-davis-county-utah","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-american-kestrel","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-comparison","tag-desert","tag-falco-sparverius","tag-falcon","tag-falcons","tag-fence-post","tag-kestrel","tag-kestrels","tag-male","tag-pale-chested","tag-perched","tag-plumage","tag-underparts","tag-variability","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/american-kestrel-male-perched-fence-post-mia-mcpherson-3812.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-byn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":78265,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/01\/24\/male-american-kestrel-chest-plumage-variation\/","url_meta":{"origin":44415,"position":0},"title":"Male American Kestrel Chest Plumage Variation","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 24, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Two recent posts on Facebook inspired me to write about male American Kestrel chest plumage variation and to share six images of male kestrels photographed here in Utah.","rel":"","context":"In "American Kestrels"","block_context":{"text":"American Kestrels","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/falcons\/american-kestrel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male American Kestrel in northern Utah, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/american-kestrel-male-metal-pole-mia-mcpherson-3814.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/american-kestrel-male-metal-pole-mia-mcpherson-3814.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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American Kestrel on a snowy light, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/american-kestrel-adult-female-light-snow-mia-mcpherson-5862.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/american-kestrel-adult-female-light-snow-mia-mcpherson-5862.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/american-kestrel-adult-female-light-snow-mia-mcpherson-5862.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/american-kestrel-adult-female-light-snow-mia-mcpherson-5862.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/american-kestrel-adult-male-sign-mia-mcpherson-4929.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/american-kestrel-adult-male-sign-mia-mcpherson-4929.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/american-kestrel-adult-male-sign-mia-mcpherson-4929.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/american-kestrel-adult-male-sign-mia-mcpherson-4929.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":62478,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/01\/07\/male-american-kestrels-at-bear-river-mbr\/","url_meta":{"origin":44415,"position":3},"title":"Male American Kestrels At Bear River MBR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 7, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"While this male American Kestrel struggled to maintain his grip on the thin branches of the Tamarisk I struggled to keep him in my viewfinder.","rel":"","context":"In "American Kestrels"","block_context":{"text":"American Kestrels","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/falcons\/american-kestrel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male American Kestrel being buffeted by a strong breeze, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/american-kestrel-male-tamarisk-mia-mcpherson-0603.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/american-kestrel-male-tamarisk-mia-mcpherson-0603.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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They might be our smallest falcon in North America but they have big attitudes, fierce characters and are terrific hunters.","rel":"","context":"In "American Kestrels"","block_context":{"text":"American Kestrels","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/falcons\/american-kestrel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male American Kestrel lifting off from a post, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/american-kestrel-male-lift-off-mia-mcpherson-7976.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/american-kestrel-male-lift-off-mia-mcpherson-7976.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/american-kestrel-male-lift-off-mia-mcpherson-7976.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/american-kestrel-male-lift-off-mia-mcpherson-7976.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}