Adults can probably easily escape fire.
However, fire could directly reduce American kestrel populations if the fire destoys occupied nest trees. Low-severity fires probably have little effect on American kestrels. Although fire may reduce potential nest trees, it may also create snags for nest and perch sites and enhance the foraging habitat of American kestrels. In the Sierra Nevada, nesting American kestrels were two to three times more numerous in a burned-over forest than in an unburned forest nearby. American kestrels do not use areas of thick cover because they require an open understory in which to maneuver and visually locate prey.