WAYS TO HELP
Sponsor a presentation: click to download our form.
Your sponsorship of $125 per presentation can provide a classroom or organization of your choice with a Sky Hunters presentation. Your sponsorship can also be put toward our scholarship fund to help bring a Sky Hunters presentation to a school or group that may not be able to afford a presentation.
Sponsor one of our beautiful birds: click here.
Your sponsorship of an individual Educational Raptor helps provide food, medical care, and updates to housing for one of the raptors. Your sponsorship will help us care for these wildlife ambassadors and ensure the success of our educational programs.
Sponsor this Great Horned Owl - $250
This educational Great Horned Owl was born in 1991 and suffered secondary poisoning as a fledgling. He has a long history of being in the public eye and many people relate to his story. Annual food expense is approximately $700.
Sponsor this Peregrine Falcon - $200
This Peregrine Falcon was born in 1990 and spent 17 years in the wild before a wing injury grounded this bird. He has a wonderful history himself, and is an example of how humans can help make a difference. Annual food expense is approximately $720.
Sponsor this Red-tailed Hawk - $150
This educational Red-tailed Hawk was born in 2001 and hit by a car as a young bird resulting in balance problems. Annual food expense is approximately $500.
Sponsor this Barn Owl - $100
This educational Barn Owl was born in 2006 and fell from a palm tree nest at 2 weeks of age fracturing her hip. Annual food expense is approximately $550.
Sponsor this American Kestrel -$50
This American Kestrel was born in 2004 and hit by a car, suffering blindness in his right eye. Annual food expense $185.
If you can't support a full raptor sponsorship, think about paying for a quarterly or even monthly sponsorship of your favorite Sky Hunters raptor.
It take almost 6 full sponsorships to feed and care for our American kestrel for a year, but every month covered helps reduce our costs to keep our presentation fees down.
ADDITIONAL WAYS TO HELP
American Kestrel Nest box plan takes flight. July 2006
Sky Hunters Environmental Education has two equally important goals: education and conservation. The primary focus of Sky Hunters is to teach respect and awareness of wildlife and habitats, fostering an enthusiasm for learning to increase the sense of caring and conserving. Through knowledge and awareness, informed and concerned citizens can make more positive contributions to their environment and society.
Sky Hunters is proposing just such a positive project: putting up and monitoring kestrel nest boxes on your land or open space. If kestrels or other bird’s, use the nest box, you will be making a positive contribution to our local ecosystem.
An added plus to this project is that it will have a significant conservation effect on American kestrel populations. Although kestrels are not an endangered species, their numbers have declined. Habitat loss, and in particular, the loss of nesting sites, is a primary cause. Kestrels can’t excavate their own nest holes; they depend on the holes and cavities created by woodpeckers. For years the wildlife value of dead or partially dead old trees went unrecognized. Dead trees were cut to clear land, for firewood, or simply because they were perceived as ugly or a liability. Fewer dead trees meant fewer nest sites and fewer kestrels. Today, across Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, there are many areas with plenty of open space and food for kestrels, but kestrels are absent simply because there are no nest sites.
Nest boxes are an easy and inexpensive way to solve this problem. Kestrels readily use the nest boxes in place of natural cavities. Nest boxes are beginning to be put up across North America, and kestrel populations are increasing nearly everywhere the nest boxes appear. Individual landowners and open space managers, especially in agricultural areas, have come to realize that more kestrels will mean less insects and mice to plague their crops, and are putting up nest boxes.
Are you interested in joining the effort to increase American kestrel numbers in our local area? Attached is a general description of the habitats we are looking for that will support American kestrels. If your site fits the requirements, contact Sky Hunters at accipiter@sky-hunters.org or 650-743-4219. Thanks to Vince Moreschini’s Boy Scout Eagle Project, kestrel nest boxes are available for placement in suitable habitat. Installation is required.
Natural History and Nest Site Requirements.
The American kestrel is the smallest and most common falcon in our local area and is very widespread, ranging throughout the Western Hemisphere. They are found from the Arctic Circle in Alaska and northwestern Canada, south through Canada and the United States, into Mexico, parts of Central America, and most of South America.
They occur in a variety of habitats from sea level up to about 3,700 m (12,000 ft.) in the Rockies. They require open ground for hunting and are most often found in habitats such as short grasslands, mountain meadows, marshlands, deserts, open pine forests, and any kind of mixed woods and grasslands, agricultural land, vacant sites, airfields, along the edge of highways, etc. Kestrels tend to nest in open, grassy, shrubby areas as well as in hollows of dying trees. They have come to rely heavily on these areas for feeding, searching for insects and small rodents sometimes unearthed by farmers' plows.
American kestrels usually defend a territory of approximately half a square mile. Their prey consists mostly of small rodents, reptiles, insects, and an occasional small bird hence the common name of "Sparrow hawk."
Most kestrels do not gain access to a mate and nesting territory until they are two years old. Males tend to establish their nesting territory first, then the females join them. At first, the females are loosely bonded to a particular mate. They move about between two or more males before settling down with one.
Kestrels prefer tree cavities as nest sites, but will also use potholes or crannies in a cliff, enclosed space in a building, or an abandoned nest from another bird. They will also readily accept nesting boxes. The availability of suitable tree cavities may be the chief density-limiting factor on breeding populations. Since they do not make their own holes, they depend on natural cavities or holes built by other birds; and, as a result they have to compete with woodpeckers, owls, squirrels, etc.
Courtship behavior usually begins with the onset of spring. After mating, the male brings the food to the female in the nest; and she begins to cache the extra. Depending on their range, eggs may be laid from mid-April through early June.
The female will lay 3-7 buff with reddish-brown marked eggs, but typically 4 or 5 are laid. Incubation lasts about 30 days, and the young begin to fledge at 27-34 days.
In some areas, they are loosing their natural nesting sites such as cavities in trees, and may depend on nest boxes being placed in these areas.
Requirements for putting your nest box up in just the right place and in the right way so kestrels will use the box.
1. You must put your nest box in the right habitat. Kestrels are open country birds. They don't nest in forests. Look for places where you often see kestrels hunting. Your nest box is designed to take the place of natural nesting cavities in large trees. If there are plenty of large trees with woodpecker holes already there, keep looking. Ideally, you want to find a place where kestrels are hunting, but not nesting: a place where there are no large trees for nesting, but there is still open country with mice and insects for hunting.
2. Kestrels will nest fairly close (1/4 mile) to people, houses, etc., but they will not nest in your backyard in town. For best results, make sure your nest box is at least 200 yards away from people or buildings.
3. Farms, ranches, orchards, croplands or other agricultural areas are often ideal places to put up a nest box. Kestrels help control the populations of rodents and insects.
4. Installing a kestrel nest box. Contact professional tree climbers, pole climbers, firemen, or utility workers and ask if they will help you put the box up. Use a ladder and make sure someone holds the bottom of the ladder.
5. Your nest box should be at least 10 feet above the ground, preferably between 15-20 feet high. You could go higher, but it is not necessary and it will usually make it more difficult to put the nest box up.
6. Mount the nest box so it is either vertical, or tilted just slightly towards the ground. Don't mount it tilted up towards the sky. You want to keep the rain out!
7. The nest box entrance hole should face east or southeast towards the rising sun. Make sure the box receives afternoon shade; mount it on the east side of the pole or tree. In warm climates this is especially important.
8. There are lots of ways to mount, or attach, the box. If you are mounting onto something wooden, large screws are best but good solid 16p nails will work too. Be sure to pre-drill holes in the box backboard, so you don't split it. Use two nails on the top and one or two on the bottom. Make sure the box is secure and won't wiggle. Remember, if the box isn't solidly secure, predators like raccoons might knock it loose, causing it to fall to the ground. If you are mounting onto something metal, pre-drill two holes on the top and two holes on the bottom of the backboard. Use bailing wire to wrap 3 or 4 times through your box holes and around the metal pole. Make sure the bailing wire is tight, and no loose ends are sticking out that could harm an incoming kestrel.
9. Be creative! Remember, there are lots of ways to mount or attach your nest box. Just make sure it is totally secure.
Build and put up a Barn Owl Box
Build and put up a American Kestrel Nest Box
Your tax-deductible donations are appreciated and may be sent to:
P.O. Box 3026
Los Altos, CA 94024-0026