Study On The Foraging Site Selection And Foraging Behavior Of Common Kestrel (Falco Tinnunculus)

From March to July in 2006 to 2007, I had studied the foraging site selection and foraging behavior of Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) in secondary-forest of Zuojia Nature Reserve. The kestrels were attracted by hanging the artificial nest-box. Using the whole-day observation and the instantaneous scanning, we made a fixed-point observation at the diurnal time-activity budgets, the parental foraging behavior investment, the efficiency of foraging behavior of Falco tinnunculus. Foraging habitat characters measured by plot sampling measurement. Data processing used independent testing samples T and principal component analysis.There were significant difference in using frequency of different foraging habitats and no significant difference in feeding success rate. The using frequency of farmland habitat is the highest of Falco tinnunculus. The using frequency of grassland is similar to the woodland, and the using frequency of residential areas is the least. The feeding success rate of grassland is the biggest to 36.0%, and the rate of farmland is bigger to 34.8%, and the rate of residential areas is the smallest to 0%. Falco tinnunculus prefer to selecting the habitats which have bigger canopy of shrub and density of shrub, smaller height of arbors and density of arbors and canopy of arbors, from the residential areas and roads are very close, keep the distance from the woodland. The smallest distance from the nest site to foraging site of Falco tinnunculus is 97.4m, and the biggest one is 2277m. The average distance from the nest site to foraging site is 429.55±753.61m. During the four periods of breeding, the foraging behavior investments of the male and female kestrel show a significant difference. During the whole breeding period, the numbers of the parental foraging back to the nest gradually increase and the investments of parental feeding also gradually increase. The investment of the female feeding is smaller than male in evidence. In the process of kestrel foraging, the most time used in circling and hovering. However, the different times of every behaviors used in the different habitats: the percent of circling in farmland woodland and shurbland is the biggest, the percent of hovering in grassland is the biggest. The time in different habitats by success hunting did not show significant different. The average time spent in success hunting is 52.63±42.78s. The time in different habitats by failed hunting showed significant different. The average time spent in failed hunting is 72.07±69.43s. The male kestrel is main role of feeding behavior, accounting for 63%, and the female kestrel is 37%. Two feeding activity peaks of the individuals were observed in mid-morning (8:30-11:30) and mid-afternoon (14:00-16:00). There were four activity peaks of feeding behavior, 8:30, 9:30, 11:30 and 15:30.