A researcher in Canada’s Yukon territory says the territory’s population of American kestrels has dropped by as much as 90% in the past ten years.
Biologist Dave Mossop, says overall in North America, the population of the kestrel which is the smallest of the falcon family birds of prey, is down by about 65 percent.
In checking about 80 of 100 bird boxes so far this summer, Mr Mossop and his
smallest of the North American folcons
© BirdWatching-bliss.com
assistant, have found only one with chicks inside. Dave Mossop retired after 25 years as the territory’s bird biologist and has taken this project on as a volunteer.
Mr Mossop says the kestrel sits at the top of the food web in which it lives. He notes that, “depending as it does on the whole system below it, it becomes a wonderful indicator species of things that are changing.”
He is not sure why the population is declining, saying it could be due to chemicals in the environment, or climate change, or combinations of those two things
dragonflies, lizards, mice,
© Kevin Cole-wikimedia commons
and others.
A group called the American Kestrel Partnership is compiling a database to study the decline.
For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.