Keeping Track of Kane County's American Kestrels
Kane County Forest Preserve 5/31/2024 3:00AM
Forest Preserve District of Kane County wildlife staff are working with the Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences at Illinois to deploy color leg bands on American Kestrels. Our intention is to learn more about the migration, breeding & site fidelity of Kane County’s kestrel population. By using color leg bands, each bird will have a unique color combination visible in flight or at a distance, easily identifiable with binoculars. We hope this will increase our chances of noting individual patterns & behaviors throughout the lifecycles of our local birds. We'd also like your help!
While enjoying the preserves or driving throughout the region, keep an eye out for these color combinations. Please report any sightings to dainkosadie@kaneforest.com with the observed color combinations, date & location of your sighting. For adults, there will be two color bands on their right leg & one color band plus one aluminum Federal band on the left. Juveniles are equipped with a single color band on their right leg & a single aluminum band on the left. For the 2024 season, all juvenile birds are receiving red color bands.
An example observation report using the bird in the depicted photo would be: Right leg-Red(top)/Green(bottom); Left leg-Green(top) seen at Big Rock Forest Preserve on 4/30/2024. Note that aluminum bands from our cohorts will always be on the bottom left.
Special shout out & thanks to our partners at U of I and our nest-box monitors for their collective help in getting this project off to a great start. We couldn’t do it without the community of help. If you're interested in volunteering to help next year with the @Kane County Kestrel Nest Box Program, again, email Sadie at dainkosadie@kaneforest.com.
