I managed to get some photos of an American Kestrel as it perched on a palm frond behind one of our villas.
It was so great to see what I thought was a hawk behind one of our villas at Harbour Club today. I ran back to our villa and grabbed my camera. On looking it up, I found out that American Kestrels are also known as Sparrow Hawks but they are not true hawks but are a member of the Falcon family of birds. They resemble the Peregrine Falcon which is a distant cousin.
I'm not sure if this one is a female or a male Kestrel
These birds are a common sight here in the Turks and Caicos Islands and are year round breeding residents. There was two of them and I’m now thinking that the one above was the female and one below is the male.
If this is the male Kestrel, he didn't stick around for me to get a better photo.
I’m sure these birds are attracted by our large population of lizards here at the villas and this makes for good hunting grounds.
Marta