Several years ago, a pair of American Kestrels occupied a nest box in one of the prairies at Fair Meadows, and I had the opportunity to observe social interactions of their newly fledged young.
I had been watching the parents bringing food to the nest box for several days. One day, two fledglings left the box and were tottering on a snag perch not far away. I suspected that more nestlings might still be in the box, so that evening, I put up a photo blind at a safe distance.
I entered the blind early the following morning, and for the next few hours I witnessed fascinating behavior of two additional young kestrels that had remained in the nest box overnight. One of the nestlings soon peered out of the opening and was later joined by a sibling. Both birds remained at the opening for about an hour before the first one, a female, fledged, flying down from the box into the prairie. About 15 minutes later, I observed her ascending to the nearby snag perch. After about 30 more minutes, the second nestling, a male, left the box. A few moments later, he too climbed onto the perch. The two siblings remained on the perch and slowly approached each other. They eventually touched, and the young male began to preen his sibling on her head and neck. The preening lasted off and on for nearly an hour before both birds flew off toward the sound of one of their parents, calling from a nearby tree.
The young male kestrel engages in allopreening on the snag near the nest box (photo by Gary Shackelford).
The social interaction of American Kestrels is a well-studied topic. Allopreening, defined as the preening of the plumage of another individual of the same species, was first described in young kestrels in the Journal of Raptor Research by Daniel Varland et al in 1991. The authors suggested that “allopreening . . . may maintain social bonds between siblings during the post-fledging period.”
Dan Varland, the lead author, grew up in nearby Rockford, Illinois. He did fieldwork on young kestrels in central Iowa between 1988 and 1990 for his dissertation. In 2009, he founded and became executive director of Coastal Raptors, a nonprofit organization in Washington state dedicated to the conservation of raptors in coastal environments. I contacted Dan to tell him about my observations of the allopreening fledgling kestrels, and he and his wife visited Fair Meadows the next time they came to Rockford.
Dan’s kestrel research was conducted before the days of digital cameras, and he had no photographic documentation of allopreening behavior of young kestrels. I was pleased to be able to provide him with some of my own photos, so he could use them to further the mission of Coastal Raptors and raptor conservation generally.
Written by Gary Shackelford, Fair Meadows Sanctuary resident manager
Cover image by Gary Shackelford. Two young kestrel siblings, a male and female, perched on a branch.
