Kids helping kestrels - volunteers build and install nest boxes for kestrels

Ranger Rick, May, 1997

The American kestrel is the smallest hawk in North America. (Some say it's the cutest too--it looks as if it's wearing a moustache.) You may have seen these birds perched on fenceposts near grassy fields. That's because their favorite foods--grasshoppers and field mice--are found in tall grasses.

But kestrels have a problem. As more trees get cut down to make way for houses and other buildings, the birds are left with fewer nest sites.

Many groups of grownups and kids have come to the rescue: They've built and put up nest boxes. Kestrels move right in, especially when the boxes are near uncut grassy areas.