Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Falconiformes > Falconidae > Falco > Falco cenchroides

Falco cenchroides (Nankeen Kestrel; Australian Falcon)

Wikipedia Abstract

The Australian kestrel or nankeen kestrel (Falco cenchroides) is one of the smallest falcons, and unlike many, does not rely on speed to catch its prey. Instead, it simply perches in an exposed position, but it also has a distinctive technique of hovering over crop and grasslands. This bird is thought to be a very close relative of the common kestrel, and probably also the spotted kestrel. It seems to have evolved of ancestral common kestrels dispersing to the Australian region in the Middle Pleistocene—less than 1 million years ago—and adapting to local conditions.
View Wikipedia Record: Falco cenchroides

Infraspecies

Falco cenchroides baru
Falco cenchroides cenchroides

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
1
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
14
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 4.38895
EDGE Score: 1.68435
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  170 grams
Birth Weight [2]  20 grams
Female Weight [4]  182 grams
Male Weight [4]  163 grams
Weight Dimorphism [4]  11.7 %
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Carnivore (Vertebrates)
Diet - Ectothermic [3]  20 %
Diet - Endothermic [3]  20 %
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  60 %
Forages - Mid-High [3]  10 %
Forages - Understory [3]  20 %
Forages - Ground [3]  70 %
Clutch Size [6]  4
Incubation [5]  27 days
Mating Display [2]  Non-acrobatic aerial display
Mating System [2]  Monogamy
Raptor Research Conservation Priority [7]  91
Snout to Vent Length [1]  13 inches (32 cm)
Wing Span [5]  28 inches (.72 m)

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
New Caledonia New Caledonia No
New Zealand New Zealand No
Southwest Australia Australia No
Sundaland Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand No
Wallacea East Timor, Indonesia No

Prey / Diet

Collocalia linchi (Cave Swiftlet)[5]
Spilopelia chinensis (Spotted Dove)[5]
Subdoluseps bowringii (Christmas Island Grass-skink, Bowring’s Supple Skink)[5]
Valanga irregularis[5]

Consumers

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 2Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
♦ 3Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 4Olsen, PD & Olsen, J. (1987) Movements and measurements of the Australian Kestrel Falco cenchroides. Emu 87, 35-41
♦ 5del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 6Jetz W, Sekercioglu CH, Böhning-Gaese K (2008) The Worldwide Variation in Avian Clutch Size across Species and Space PLoS Biol 6(12): e303. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060303
♦ 7Buechley ER, Santangeli A, Girardello M, et al. Global raptor research and conservation priorities: Tropical raptors fall prey to knowledge gaps. Divers Distrib. 2019;25:856–869. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12901
♦ 8Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
♦ 9Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 10Species Interactions of Australia Database, Atlas of Living Australia, Version ala-csv-2012-11-19
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0