Aldo the American Kestrel leaned forward to stretch his wings and spread his tail. This normally impressive display was rather comical this time since he only had three full-length feathers left in his tail. During molting season, he has the habit of dropping most of his tail feathers at once.
In most field guides, I see male American Kestrel tails depicted with solid rusty-colored feathers with black and white tips. But Aldo's tail has a significant number of feathers with black and white checks:
Male American Kestrels actually have a surprising amount of variation in their tail patterns. This has been documented in the state by the Central Wisconsin Kestrel Research group by photographing the tails of birds they catch for banding:
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