Mom kestrel lays the first four eggs while Dad waits

March 30 - April 5, 2007. Two European kestrels are occupying a nest box in The Netherlands. Mom lays the eggs while Dad waits outside. He brings her a mouse (perhaps a vole) and she's very hungry!

The eyes of the European kestrel are structured so that it can see ultraviolet light. Using this visionary ability, the kestrel can see where one of its man prey items, the tiny vole, moves about in its runways under the grass. The vole leaves its urine along the runways to mark its territory. However, the urine is visible in ultraviolet light, so the kestrel can see where the voles are moving about. (David Attenborough - "The Life of Birds")

This video clip was taken from the beleef de lente website.
http://www.beleefdelente.nl/portal

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• kestrel
• beelef
• de
• lente
• Netherlands

[karrie157]

brilliant!!

[maviscrow]

Beautiful birds, kestrels. Lovely colours sometimes, gentle pinkish greys and blues :>

[TheKeiraner]

It's do cool the way their partnership works and how fluent it is.

[freddyfast9]

I have 10-12 sharp-skinned hawks living near me and I've had the pleasure of watching them interact for years now. I feed a variety of bird species so that explains the interest and living arrangements of the hawks. I've been feeding the birds for 25 years so the hawks slowly moved in. I have a nice 50x scope for watching them and their battles with the crows of my area. I love your videos keep up the great work.