Bird Cams Around the World

Great catch at Harculo, pearl1. I see 3 chicks!

Hello all! Sorry, I didn't write here so long - our Kestrels gives so much work!
Yes, we have some good news :) The first chick in our nest has hatched at 22 May in the morning (11:44 AM), the second - at 3:24 PM at 22 May too. Others - at 23 May in the morning (all before 9 AM). We are very happy! :)))

There is something interesting in addition. After the attentvie viewing of records from the nest there was clarified that the female has TWO males simultaneously!!! Both feeds her and both mates with her! Even more - both has incubated the clutch before the chickens' appearance!!! We all are in complete amazement. How can they be distinguished: the first male has even grey tail and the second male has dark streaks at his tail:


And



More. This:


And this:


Do you see that? Here you can see the first male, which has attracted the female in the beginnig - with even grey tail. He is elder male. Here is the tail-streaked male. His streaks means that he has only 1 year old. Here and here (today was new attack!) you can see them both.

Please, see more films at our kestrel page!

I think the female has the right idea!

Feather - Good to hear from you again! I'd been checking the Belarus nest for hatches and had seen the chicks, but I had no idea that the female actually had two males keeping her company! Thanks for bringing us up to date on this latest development, and thanks for providing pictures to help us identify the two different males. I'll have to check the tail feather patterns next time I see a male kestrel in the nest...and I'll have to take a look at the videos on your kestrel page.

It's truly amazing what we can see - and learn from - by watching the various bird cams around the world. There in Belarus you have a female kestrel with two males, while here in North America (in Toronto, Canada) we have a male peregrine falcon with two different females at different nests. Who would have thought that would ever happen!

P.S. I think Warbler is right in that the female kestrel has the right idea!

I think we have another hatch here What do you see?

I finally caught Mom off of her eggs,but it's hard to see how many chicks she has

Harcule

OMG...three chicks have hatched at the Denmark kestrel nest! (I didn't expect to see chicks for another day or two.)

Two more hatches for our Swiss Miss! There are now 5 lively chicks at the kestrel nest in Muttenz, Switzerland.

Beautiful Swiss Miss and family
5 very hungry little ones

Italy: Hola and Simone

These chicks sure are growing up fast! I love their big feet.

Bosuil sent me some updates/corrections on the kestrel nests we follow here. Here are two of his interesting updates.

- It turns out that the Lausen nest is not in Germany but in Switzerland - in the north near Basel. And get this...the nest is on the roof of an IKEA building!

- In the Beleef de Lente nest, the jackdaws that filled the nest with sticks were replaced by Stock Doves. The Stock Doves nested, incubated, and now are raising one chick.

Well I feel really dumb now

Well you're not alone - I thought Lausen was a kestrel nest in Germany too!

Netherlands: Harculo

Looks like at least 4 chicks now.




England: Oxfordshire

Looks like at least 4 chicks here also, but parent has been blocking the view this morning.




Denmark

I do believe we have a full nest of 6 chicks here.

HARCULO:

What a great photo . I think her face says it all - "Darling, please put that straight into the larder!"

I agree!

Was just reading up over at the Swiss forum about the Kestrel's clutch of 7 in Berlin-Frohnau - and all 7 hatched (7th on May 25)! Hadn't seen a Kestrel with 7 yet!

Snapshot a few hours after hatching, little one in the middle (snapshot not mine):


(Update info for calendar - hatches: 7 (5/22-25) )

OMG! That's great news about all 7 chicks hatching! (We were so surprised this year to have two kestrel nests with 7 eggs in them. Prior to that, we thought that 6 eggs was the maximum.)

And thanks for posting the cute picture with the newest (and littlest) chick in the center of the others!

Thanks too, Bosuil, for all your kestrel nest updates for the cam links and the nesting calendar. If it weren't for you, we'd continue to think that the Lausen nest and what we were calling the Highlander nest were still in Germany, not Switzerland.