Falco sparverius

The American kestrel is the smallest and most common falcon in the Americas. Though it has been called the American "sparrow hawk", this now obsolete vernacular name is a misnomer; the American kestrel is a true falcon, while neither the Eurasian sparrowhawk nor the other species called sparrowhawks are in the family Falconidae, hence only very distantly related to the American kestrel. It has a roughly two-to-one range in size over subspecies and sex, varying in size from about the weight of a blue jay to a mourning dove. It is a very successful species, occurring almost throughout North and South America except for the Arctic fringes of North America, and the densest tropical Amazon rainforest areas; it has evolved into 17 subspecies adapted to different environments and habitats throughout the region. It exhibits sexual dimorphism in size and plumage, although both sexes have a rufous back with noticeable barring. Its plumage is colorful, and juveniles are similar in plumage to adults.

Falco sparverius

Channel City Camera Club from Santa Barbara, US · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
American kestrelPBDB
Sits inside
FalcoPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Falconidae
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Falconidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Falconidae

Time the record covers

At least 1.7 million years on record.

The record covers at least 1.8 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 0 of 39 occurrencesPleistocene — about 37 of 39 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 2 of 39 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.0–924 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 9 occurrences103 ka–0 Mya — about 26 occurrences1.8 Mya11.7 ka3.08 Mya0 Mya

39 occurrences of Falco sparverius on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

39 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

San Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.28°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°W

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The named rock units Falco sparverius has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 37 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Falco sparverius and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Falco sparverius and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,184 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 39 sites for Falco sparverius, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

31 references

Each of the 39 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 19 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Falco sparverius

Credit
Channel City Camera Club from Santa Barbara, US
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Falco sparverius · MVZ:Bird:MVZ:Bird:190886

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itFalco through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1758)