Red-footed Falcon: a two-minute wildlife lesson

Hawks and Falcons · day 4 of 7

Five facts

1. The male is blue-grey all over except for his red legs and red patch under the tail. The female has an orange head and belly and a white face.
2. Its scientific name, vespertinus, comes from vesper, the Latin word for evening. It means of the evening.
3. This falcon does not build its own nest. Pairs move into old nests of rooks and other crows, often side by side in colonies.
4. It spends winter in Africa. In August 2004, one turned up on Martha's Vineyard, the first ever found in North America.
5. Parents feed their youngest chicks the most often. Chicks under 3 weeks old get the bigger prey, such as lizards and large bush-crickets.

The quiz

1. What colour are the male red-footed falcon's legs?

• Yellow
• Blue-grey
• Black
• Red (correct)

Apart from red legs and a red patch under the tail, the male is all blue-grey.

2. What does vespertinus, its scientific name, mean?

• Of evening (correct)
• Red foot
• Little hunter
• Of the steppe

Vespertinus is Latin for of evening.

3. Where does the red-footed falcon usually raise its young?

• In a burrow it digs
• In old nests of rooks, crows or magpies (correct)
• On bare sand
• In a nest it weaves from reeds

It does not build a nest but uses abandoned nests of other birds.

4. Where was a red-footed falcon seen in North America for the first time, in 2004?

• In Alaska
• In Mexico City
• On Martha's Vineyard (correct)
• In Greenland

In August 2004 one was found on Martha's Vineyard, in Massachusetts.

5. Which chicks do red-footed falcon parents feed most often?

• The oldest
• The youngest (correct)
• Only the males
• Only the loudest

The youngest nestlings receive food most often and most regularly.

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