{"id":49749,"date":"2017-12-10T05:16:49","date_gmt":"2017-12-10T12:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=49749"},"modified":"2024-02-18T18:12:01","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T01:12:01","slug":"female-and-male-american-kestrel-comparison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/12\/10\/female-and-male-american-kestrel-comparison\/","title":{"rendered":"Female and Male American Kestrel Comparison"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Female

Female and Male American Kestrel Comparison<\/p><\/div>\n

I’m keeping my post very simple this morning because I am rushing, part of the reason I am rushing is that I have been setting up a new phone and that took up a lot of my time yesterday so I didn’t have time to edit any recent photos.<\/p>\n

I was going to post the image of this female American Kestrel because I have always loved it and it looks super printed on metallic paper and then I saw the image of the male and joined them together as a composite because they work well to show the differences between the sexes of our smallest North American falcon.<\/p>\n

Females have barred rufous upperparts including their backs, wing coverts, rumps and their tails that are rufous with several black bars. They have light colored chests with rufous streaking, the patterns on their heads are similar to the heads of males but more subdued in coloration.<\/p>\n

Males have gray-blue wings, rufous tails with one black terminal band, rufous backs, napes and rumps with black bars or spots and their chests are variable and can be from white to reddish buff with a few to many black spots instead of the streaking seen on females.<\/p>\n

Both sexes are very colorful though the females lack the gray-blues of the males.<\/p>\n

A few American Kestrel facts:<\/p>\n