Locally, kestrels can be seen perched on poles or wires along the highways and rural roads that line their habitat. Kestrels prefer open spaces including agricultural land, grasslands, deserts, mountain meadows and some urban areas.
Kestrels are distinctive-looking falcons with bright plumage.
The male is more colorful than the female and the sexes can be distinguished by their coloring in the juvenile stage as well as in maturity. Most of the chest and back are dotted with black spots. The female is similarly marked as the male, but has more brown and less blue-gray. As is characteristic of raptors, the female kestrels are slightly larger than the males. Kestrels are hunters, eating primarily insects, small mammals and birds.