Backyard and Beyond

I’m going to bet this isn’t the only American Kestrel nest above a New York City bus stop.

Falco sparverius love these old decaying wooden cornices, one of the reasons they have taken so well to the city. Falcons are spartan: the nest is pretty sparse inside, evidently, with little or no nesting material used. Female Kestrels do most of the month-long incubation duties, but this looks like the male (with blue-gray wings). A clutch can have 3-5 eggs. Nestling stage also lasts about a month. One difference between this location and a snag out in the country, a more traditional nesting location, is that the ground below is sidewalk, making for a hard first landing.