Feast of skinks for Nankeen Kestrels Falco cenchroides breeding on a bird-friendly farm

Abstract

Nankeen Kestrels Falco cenchroides raised three fledglings each year from 2018 to 2020 in nests in hollows of remnant eucalypts on a farm near Deans Marsh in southern Victoria. Observations were made each year of the adults feeding the chicks during foraging sessions, enabling the prey items and estimated feeding and hunting rates to be assessed. Skinks (Scincidae) formed a substantial proportion of the prey items delivered to the chicks. The delivery rate of prey by the male feeding a brood of three—6.0 items/h in 2018 and 2019, and 11.2 items/h in 2020 over 1.2 h—was at the high end of rates previously reported in which vertebrates made up the bulk of the prey. The breeding success of the Kestrels at the study site (three fledglings per nest) was at the high end of results of studies elsewhere in Australia (1–4 fledglings per nest started). Farming practices on this property have been designed to encourage wildlife including skinks, and this might have contributed to the high breeding success of the Kestrels.