Kestrels Brave it Out After Several Brutal Raids on their Nest by Tawny Owls and a Jackdaw
21 Video Views·Sep 17, 2022
These kestrels manage to hold on to their nest despite a series of brutal raids. Watch on to see kestrel v tawny owl, kestrel vs jackdaw. Sadly the kestrel pair lose two out of seven eggs during the scuffle to defend their precious brood, but they carry on in spite of the problems and go on to incubate the remaining five.
Watch as first a tawny owl barges past the female kestrel, ignoring her screeches of protests, and crushes an egg in the scuffle that follows. Not long afterwards, the kestrel nest is raided again, this time by a jackdaw, and yet another egg is lost. Then the tawny owl is back again and tragically destroys yet another precious egg .
Robert E Fuller
I'm Robert Fuller, a wildlife artist with a passion for kestrels.
Our female kestrel has been through a lot already this season.
She lost one egg to the jackdaws.
But here she is incubating the remaining four eggs.
And two more soon followed.
But soon events took a dramatic turn.
Sadly during this encounter another egg was broken.
Tawny owls often attack other birds of prey as part of territorial disputes.
And these are real bruisers and they want to rule the valley.
Tawny owl dragged her out of the nest and I was really worried the eggs might get cold.
Thankfully she came back and settled down to incubating the eggs again.
The kestrel pair share incubation and swap over regularly and have a quick catch up while they're doing it.
Look out for our next kestrel video where we can see how this plucky pair get on with their incubation.
If you want to find out more about these kestrels, visit my website and see you next time.
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