Falco tinnunculus
Silhouette: Rebecca Groom · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), also known as the European kestrel, Eurasian kestrel, Old World kestrel, or windfucker is a species of predatory bird belonging to the kestrel group of the falcon family Falconidae. In the United Kingdom, where no other kestrel species commonly occurs, it is generally just called the "kestrel".
This species occurs over a large native range. It is widespread in Europe, Asia and Africa, as well as occasionally reaching the east coast of North America. It has colonized a few oceanic islands, but vagrant individuals are generally rare; in the whole of Micronesia for example, the species was only recorded twice each on Guam and Saipan in the Marianas.
The common kestrel was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the current binomial name Falco tinnunculus. Linnaeus specified the type location as Europe but restricted this to Sweden in 1761. The genus name is Late Latin from falx, falcis, a sickle, referencing the claws of the bird. The species name tinnunculus is Latin for "kestrel" from "tinnulus", "shrill". The Latin name tinnunculus had been used by the... Wikipedia →
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Common Kestrel sighting in Osaka on a given day, based on 377 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 54th most-seen of the 180 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June to March
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Common Kestrel in Osaka on a given day, against under 5% in April and May, the lowest months.
Between noon and 3 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Common Kestrel sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
94th of 152
Of the 152 cities where we can rate Common Kestrel sightings, Osaka ranks 94th at about 10%. The best odds are in Marrakesh (Morocco, about 60%), Abuja (Nigeria, about 60%) and Yaoundé (Cameroon, about 50%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Common Kestrel is recorded against all the birds logged in Osaka (377 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
