{"id":950,"date":"2010-11-23T17:18:45","date_gmt":"2010-11-23T23:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/featheredphotography.wordpress.com\/?p=950"},"modified":"2011-05-29T13:03:35","modified_gmt":"2011-05-29T19:03:35","slug":"american-kestrel-the-killing-bite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/23\/american-kestrel-the-killing-bite\/","title":{"rendered":"American Kestrel – The Killing Bite"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have watched American Kestrels consume their prey up close many times.\u00a0 Usually that prey has been a vole but occasionally it’s been\u00a0a small bird or mouse.\u00a0 But until this day the prey had always been already dead when I arrived on the scene.\u00a0 It was cold and snowy when I spotted\u00a0this\u00a0male kestrel with a mouse (I was surprised it wasn’t a vole) that was still very much alive.\u00a0\u00a0 As a side note I want to add here that this kestrel was not baited.\u00a0 Many photographs are taken of raptors when they’ve been baited by mice (they can be bought at pet stores)\u00a0that have been provided as an enticement by the photographer.\u00a0 That was not the case here – I do not bait.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"American<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0Male kestrel with live mouse<\/em><\/p>\n

It was obvious that\u00a0the mouse was\u00a0alive because it was\u00a0struggling slightly, its tail was twitching and its eyes were open.\u00a0 In my experience these birds often prefer a more stable perch than this while they\u00a0eat their meal – something like a fencepost or pole that provides some kind of platform from which to eat.\u00a0 So I didn’t think he would eat the mouse here and I was right.\u00a0 He gave me time for a few quick shots and then flew off to another perch.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"Kestrel<\/a><\/p>\n

Kestrel on second perch<\/em><\/p>\n

He didn’t go far however and I was able to approach him again.\u00a0 This next perch was also precarious to eat from because the wind was blowing and both perch and bird were swaying in the breeze.\u00a0 By this time the mouse was\u00a0recovering somewhat\u00a0and its struggling increased.\u00a0\u00a0 The kestrel was obviously uncomfortable with the activity of the mouse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0The killing bite<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>So he decided to put an end to it and dispatch the mouse, which he did very quickly with\u00a0several very rapid bites to the head.\u00a0 The mouse immediately quit struggling and had obviously expired within seconds.\u00a0 Kestrels,\u00a0like all falcons, have a tomial tooth – sometimes called a falcon tooth.\u00a0 It’s a \u00a0triangular-shaped, downward pointing projection on the upper mandible that fits into a corresponding notch on the lower mandible.\u00a0 They often use this tooth to kill prey by biting through the neck vertebrae and severing the spinal column.\u00a0\u00a0 It appeared to me that this kestrel didn’t bite through the neck but I imagine that tooth would also be very effective on the brain – as would the pointed tip of the beak.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Immediately after killing the mouse the kestrel flew off – presumably to find a more suitable perch to use as a dinner table.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have watched American Kestrels consume their prey up close many times.\u00a0 Usually that prey has been a vole but occasionally it’s been\u00a0a small bird or mouse.\u00a0 But until this day the prey had always been already dead when I arrived on the scene.\u00a0 It was cold and snowy when I spotted\u00a0this\u00a0male kestrel with a mouse (I was surprised it wasn’t a vole) that was still very much alive.\u00a0\u00a0 As a side note I want to add here that this kestrel was not baited.\u00a0 Many photographs are taken of raptors when they’ve been baited by mice (they can be bought at pet stores)\u00a0that have been provided as an enticement by the photographer.\u00a0 That was not the case here – I do not bait.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Male kestrel with live mouse It was obvious that\u00a0the mouse was\u00a0alive because it was\u00a0struggling slightly, its tail was twitching and its eyes were open.\u00a0 In my experience these birds often prefer a more stable perch than this while they\u00a0eat their meal – something like a fencepost or pole that provides some kind of platform from which to eat.\u00a0 So I didn’t think he would eat the mouse here and I was right.\u00a0 He gave me time for a few quick shots and then flew off to another perch. \u00a0 \u00a0 Kestrel on second perch He didn’t go far however and I was able to approach him again.\u00a0 This next perch was also precarious to eat from because the wind was blowing and both perch and bird were swaying in the breeze.\u00a0…<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[340,16,392],"tags":[28,132,133,191,192,223,256,306,311,315],"class_list":["post-950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-kestrels","category-photography-ethics","category-feeding-bird-behaviors","tag-american-kestrel","tag-falcon","tag-falcon-tooth","tag-kestrel","tag-killing-prey","tag-mouse","tag-prey","tag-tomial-tooth","tag-utah-2","tag-vole"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-fk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}