Gould believed that few people could go for a country ramble without noticing 'a stationary object between them and the sky'. This was the Kestrel, or Windhover 'scanning the earth for a mouse, a lizard, or, if it be the season of summer, a young lark or other bird. For several seconds (sometimes for a minute or more) this speck in the sky appears motionless...'

The male Kestrel, shown on a branch of a Scots Pine, differs from the female depicted in the background, by its grey head and the black bar across the end of its grey tail.

DISTRIBUTION: Breeds throughout large part of Eurasia and Africa, between 70°N and 34°N. Resident but some winter south. Now the commonest and most widespread of falcons in Britain and Europe