American Kestrel, Sugar Land Memorial Park, Sugar Land, Texas

Not the world’s greatest shot but I worked hard for this one. Usually when I see Kestrels they are on electrical wires so it was cool to see this guy in a more natural setting  (and like most birds, but not most raptors, the male is more colorful than the female. Male Kestrels have that beautiful streak of blue.) They almost don’t look real, like someone spray painted their feathers and applied thick eyeliner on them. This guy was quite handsome and despite being one of the smallest raptors still displayed an impressive wing span (though he was unimpressed that I had to go off the beaten path and then off the beaten path again to photograph him. Sigh.)