Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Falconiformes > Falconidae > Falco > Falco newtoni

Falco newtoni (Malagasy Kestrel; Madagascan Kestrel)

Wikipedia Abstract

The Malagasy kestrel (Falco newtoni), also known as the Madagascar kestrel, Malagasy spotted kestrel, Newton's kestrel, Madagascar spotted kestrel, katiti (Creole) or hitsikitsika (Malagasy), is a small bird of prey of the genus Falco. It is named after British ornithologist Edward Newton. It occurs in two subspecies on Madagascar and at Aldabra. The race from Aldabra is also called Aldabra kestrel (Falco newtoni aldabranus). Its closest living relative is the Seychelles kestrel; they were at one time considered conspecific. Their common ancestors appear to have diverged very recently, probably less than 1 million years ago during the Early or Middle Pleistocene.The Mauritius kestrel is more distantly related.(Groombridge et al. 2002)
View Wikipedia Record: Falco newtoni

Infraspecies

Falco newtoni aldabranus
Falco newtoni newtoni

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
1
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
14
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 4.42029
EDGE Score: 1.69015
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  125 grams
Birth Weight [2]  16.5 grams
Female Weight [4]  145 grams
Male Weight [1]  105 grams
Weight Dimorphism [1]  38.1 %
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Carnivore (Vertebrates)
Diet - Ectothermic [3]  20 %
Diet - Endothermic [3]  20 %
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  60 %
Forages - Understory [3]  50 %
Forages - Ground [3]  50 %
Clutch Size [6]  4
Incubation [5]  28 days
Raptor Research Conservation Priority [7]  54
Snout to Vent Length [1]  11 inches (27 cm)
Wing Span [5]  22 inches (.56 m)

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Madagascar and the Indian Ocean Islands Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles Yes

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Ardea cinerea (Grey Heron)1
Tyto alba (Barn Owl)1

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Echinostoma caproni[8]

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
♦ 4Cheke, AS and Jones, CG 1987. Measurements and weights of the surviving endemic birds of the Mascarenes and their eggs. In Diamond. AW (ed.). Studies of Mascarene Island birds, pp. 403-422. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
♦ 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
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