Falcon crécerellette

The Faucon crécerellette ( Falco naumanni ) is small a Faucon very similar to the Faucon kestrel but more slender.

Morphological characteristics

Size: 29 to 32 cm
Scale: 58 to 72 cm
Weight: female from 140 to 210 G; male from 90 to 170 G

There exists a dimorphism of the plumage between the two sexes (see the image).

the male with the head, the nape of the neck, the tail and the tail gray-blue. Its coat is russet-red and its Rémige S rectrices is gray and ends in a black bar. This black bar is also found in the female.
the female has a mottled and barred entirely brown plumage.

The young people resemble the adult female. Only the adult males raise a coloured plumage taking part in the bridal parade. This coloured plumage would disadvantage the young people while making them more easily locatable by the predatory ones.

Sexual maturity and the associated adult plumage are acquired at the one year age.

Note: the falcon crécerellette differs very little from the falcon kestrel. The plumage of the male of the crécerellette is characterized by the presence from a bluish band on the wing and the absence from black tasks on the back. On the other hand, the females are very similar and the imparable criterion to differentiate them is the color of the greenhouses: black for the kestrel, white for the crécerellette.

Characteristics with the flight

The falcon crécerellette like the practical Falcon kestrel flight in " Saint-Esprit".

Cry

The cry of the falcon crécerellette resembles kchèt chèt chèt .

Food mode

He eats large insects taken in flight or on the ground.

Reproduction

Like all the Falcon S, the falcon crécerellette does not build a nest. It uses to nest of existing anfractuosities in cliffs, the cavities of buildings or the artificial nesting boxes installed in old sheep-folds… It niche in small colony.

Migration

It is a gregarious and migrating bird, present in France of at the beginning of March at the beginning of October. In France, the core of population is in the department of the Rhone delta in the area of the Crau dries and of the Marais of Vigueirat but the species recolonise since years 2000 of old sites which had been abandoned in the Seventies in the Aude and Herault.
Les populations of Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia and Eastern, winters in Southern Africa in vast dormitories of certain towns of South Africa. One a long time sought the place of wintering of the population of Western Europe remained. Only some groups of to more the few hundreds of individuals had been found in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger or Senegal. It is not that in 2007 qu ' the principal zone of wintering of the falcons crécerellettes was found nesting in Western Europe; a dormitory of approximately 28.600 Falcons crécerellettes (more half of manpower of the populations of Western Europe and North Africa joined together), accompanied by 16.000 Swallow hawks naucler ( Chelictinia riocourii ), gathering on the whole nearly 45.000 insectivorous raptors. The birds come there probably also from Morocco, of Spain, of Portugal and France.

Conservation

LPO coordinates a programme of reinforcement of the French population of the Falcon crécerellette. This action of conservation begun in 2006 within the framework from a European program LIFE Nature takes place mainly on the department of the Aude. The protection of the principal dormitory found in 2007 in Africa will be a major stake for the conservation of the species, accompanied by a more exhaustive general follow-up.

See too

Taxonomic references

External bonds

Followed by a colony of Falcon crécerellette in a village of the south of France
Program LIFE TRANSFERT_LPO

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