With six 13-day old kestrel chicks to care for, kestrel parents Apollo & Athena must deliver enough food every day to ensure their chicks grow up strong. This 10-minute timelapse compresses 17 hours in the kestrel nest and covers 16 food deliveries to show the relentless work behind the scenes. From sunrise to sunset, these kestrel parents hunt and prepare 16 meals for their six growing chicks.
Kestrels Apollo & Athena
Using cameras hidden inside their nest, I've followed the lives of this kestrel pair for many years and I've learned a lot about the behaviour of these UK birds of prey. This timelapse from a typical day in June, when the kestrel chicks were just 13 days old, offers an insight into how hard these raptors work to feed their chicks.
What's on the menu?
From the first delivery at 8.20am to the last at 8.20pm so many different meals are delivered. Voles, mice, earthworms, young birds like tree sparrows, linnets, and skylarks, and even crane fly larvae, these kestrel chicks consume a varied diet.
Vole shortage
It's unusual to see so birds make up more of these kestrel chicks' diet than voles and other rodents. Normally these rodents would make up the main part of their diet. But this film was recorded during a particularly dry summer, when vole numbers were low, forcing the kestrels to adapt their hunting strategy. Several deliveries include young skylarks, suggesting nearby nests were raided — a difficult watch for some bird lovers, but a natural response to challenging conditions.
Kestrel hunting
In 17 hours, the male kestrel Apollo brings in just two meals. But this doesn't mean he's not working tirelessly behind the scenes. Typically a male does the majority of the hunting and will call a female out of the nest to give her his catch. She then returns with it to the nest to prepare it and feed it to the chicks. The nest cameras also show Athena arriving moments before Apollo with catches of her own. This suggests that she is also hunting for food - evidence of just how hard this pair need to work to keep their chicks fed.
How kestrels feed their chicks
On the occasions when Apollo does enter the kestrel nest with a food delivery, he simply dumps the food on the floor of the nest. On one occasion he drops the food, a blue tit, right on top of the chicks and it rolls to the back of the nest, where Athena later retrieves it to prepare for the chicks. Meanwhile it is Athena who prepares every single meal — plucking, portioning, and feeding each chick in turn. It’s demanding, repetitive work, and a powerful reminder of the effort required to raise a brood of this size.
This film offers an honest look at kestrel parenting: hard work, adaptability, and the reality of life at the nest.
