The answer is hoverin’ in the wind

The rise and rise of raptor species has been a major success of the past half century, but it may well have been the downfall of the common kestrel

- Mark Cocker

TECHNICALLY, this wonderful bird of prey is called the common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), although it is probably the only raptor better known by one of several affectionate nicknames: ‘kes’, ‘kessie’ or, in Orkney, by a lovely dialect word, ‘moosie-haak’. One thing we can conclude about the official title is that it is no longer quite as appropriate as it once was. Kestrels have seriously declined and are now an amber-listed species. They are still widespread across almost all of Britain, except northwest Scotland, but the breeding numbers have tumbled. At the time of a census in the late 1980s, it was suggested that there were 50,000 pairs. The total today is 31,000.

Accounting for this decline has been challenging. Fluctuations in vole numbers, the impact of rodenticides or agricultural changes have all been mooted. Yet one factor may possibly be the rise and rise of other raptor species, which has been one of the major successes in all British environmental action in the past half century. These other birds—buzzards, goshawks and red kites—may compete with or actually directly predate kestrels.