Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)

I have led a number of walks in my time and the question I get asked more than 'What was that?' is 'How do you know?'.

New people to nature watching often place their entire emphasis on colouring and forget all the other factors. For example, we handed over a RSPB credit card with a picture of a kingfisher on it in a local shop once and the shop assistant said 'My wife saw a kingfisher in our garden recently'. I asked him whether they lived by a river or the coast and the answer was 'No, near Wareham Forest.' I suggested it was a nuthatch rather than a kingfisher and the response was 'How do you know?'

These are obviously pictures of a kestrel, but how do you know? The chestnut brown colouring; mottled plumage underneath; black bars in the tail; these are all unclear from a distance but there is a clue far more obvious, what is it doing? It is hovering; it is hunting; therefore it is a bird of prey and, as the only one that hovers is a kestrel then you do not even need to lift your binoculars to see the plumage markings (by the way buzzards do hover of sorts too).

It is not just about plumage it is about size, shape, posture, movement, activity, location, time of year, time of day, population numbers, instinct. experience, a whole bundle of things. This is a kestrel, it's 'jizz' says so, it just is. This is not just true only for birds but for every facet of wildlife, including flowers and other plants.

The kestrel was once our most common bird of prey but sadly, like so many other species, they have declined drastically in recent times and the buzzard now holds the 'most common' title.