Image
© AlamySad: There has been a 36 per cent fall in numbers of Kestrel last year
One of the country's most familiar birds of prey is vanishing at an alarming rate, experts warned yesterday.

They say numbers of kestrels, which are often seen hovering over the verges of major roads, fell by more than a third last year.

The mysterious disappearance of thousands of birds in one year follows a steady decline - the kestrel population has dropped by around 20 per cent since the mid-1990s.

Bird experts are baffled by the recent fall, but suspect the hard winter combined with their vanishing rural habitat has taken its toll.

Kestrels are one of Britain's smallest and most recognisable birds of prey, with a 30in wingspan they frequently hunt for voles by the side of major roads where the rodents are more prevalent than in open fields.

While intensive farming methods have been blamed for their steady decline, their population fell by a huge 36 per cent last year, according to the annual Breeding Birds Survey.

Experts say the freezing temperatures in January and February could have made hunting for prey difficult.

Grahame Madge, of the RSPB, said: 'What we see so often these days is the population drops gradually because of poor habitat and when you get a hard winter, they are hit again and don't have the opportunity to recover - particularly where changes in farming practices are so damaging.'

The Breeding Birds Survey - jointly funded by the RSPB, the British Trust for Ornithology and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee - also found that sparrowhawk numbers dropped by 18 per cent last year but that buzzards and kites are thriving.