American kestrel
Scientific name: Falco sparverius Linnaeus, 1758
Overview
The American kestrel is the smallest and most common falcon in the Americas. Though it has been called the American "sparrow hawk", this now obsolete vernacular name is a misnomer; the American kestrel is a true falcon, while neither the Eurasian sparrowhawk nor the other species called sparrowhawks are in the family Falconidae, hence only very distantly related to the American kestrel. It has a roughly two-to-one range in size over subspecies and sex, varying in size from about the weight of a blue jay to a mourning dove. It is a very successful species, occurring almost throughout North and South America except for the Arctic fringes of North America, and the densest tropical Amazon rainforest areas; it has evolved into 17 subspecies adapted to different environments and habitats throughout the region. It exhibits sexual dimorphism in size and plumage, although both sexes have a rufous back with noticeable barring. Its plumage is colorful, and juveniles are similar in plumage to adults.
From the Wikipedia article “American kestrel”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Conservation status
Least concern on the IUCN Red List, as recorded on Wikidata, citing The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021.3.
Where it lives
The Catalogue of Life records it in: Caribbean; Middle America; North America; South America.
Common names
Names in other languages (11)
- Arabic
- عوسق أمريكي
- Chinese
- 美国红隼
- French
- Crécerelle d'Amérique
- German
- Buntfalke
- Indonesian
- Alap-alap amerika
- Japanese
- アメリカチョウゲンボウ
- Persian
- دلیجه آمریکایی
- Portuguese
- Falcão-americano, peneireiro-americano, quiriquiri
- Russian
- Воробьиная пустельга
- Spanish
- Cernícalo americano, Halconcito colorado
- Turkish
- Amerika kerkenezi
Sources
-
Catalogue of Life — scientific name, classification, common names and range.
Version 2026-09-11, CC BY 4.0.
This species in the Catalogue of Life.
Citation
Bánki, O., Roskov, Y., Döring, M., Ower, G., Hernández Robles, D. R., Plata Corredor, C. A., Stjernegaard Jeppesen, T., Örn, A., Pape, T., Hobern, D., Garnett, S., Little, H., DeWalt, R. E., Miller, J., Orrell, T., Aalbu, R., Abbott, J., Aedo, C., Aescht, E., et al. (2026). Catalogue of Life (Version 2026-09-11). Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgz5n Source database: The Integrated Taxonomic Information System.
- GBIF — species page and recorded occurrences.
- Wikidata — conservation status, names in other languages. Q651545, CC0 1.0.
- Wikipedia — overview, from the article “American kestrel”, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Photo — Gregory "Slobirdr" Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. File page.
- Range map — Focus, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. File page.
Last updated: 4 October 2026