Continuing on with photos from a trip to New Mexico, these shots of an American Kestrel were taken at the Bernardo Wildlife Area in Bosque, south of Albuquerque. The Kestrel is the smallest North American falcon at about 8-12 inches (22-30 cm) in length. They hunt insects and small prey in open fields from a perch or by hovering against the wind (kiting). They use wires, poles or small stalks as in these pictures as a perch to scan the area for prey. They are quite colorful with distinctive black vertical markings on the head, often referred to as “moustache” and “sideburns”.
The slate-blue on the wings indicate that this is a male. Females have reddish-brown wings. He was actively hunting while I was photographing him. Here he is in a kiting pose.
I captured these two photos of him in flight as he left this field.
Birds in My Viewfinder 
Looks like a good trip so far…I love the colors on this bird! Nice work!
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Love the lead image. The flight shots are nice, too. I usually have a hard time getting close to kestrels.
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The wildlife area is a driving loop so I approached him in a car while he was perched. Birds seem to ignore cars for the most part and he stayed on his perch in the open field. I was able to get out and track him once he was in the air and busy hunting. That enabled me to get the flight shots.
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