Red-footed Falcon (Falco vespertinus) is among the smaller falcons by size. It is 28 to 34 cm long, and the span of its slender and toward the end narrowed wings is 65 to 76 cm. The Red-footed Falcon is very distinctly colored and it is difficult to confuse it with any other species. A pronounced sexual dimorphism is characteristic for it. The female is reddish-brown on the underside of the body and on the crown, with a few darker lines on the belly. A black stripe runs over the orange-bordered eyes; the throat and cheeks are white. The rear part of the head is yellowish-white with a sharp transition to the bluish-gray back, which is distinctly crosswise dark-banded. The legs and the base of its beak are orange, the rest of the small beak is gray and black. The male looks as if he had put on an evening suit, entirely blue-gray, the upper side of his flight feathers is silver-gray. Only the rear part of his ventral side, from the red-orange legs toward the tail, is brownish-brown. He also has the base of the beak and the eye ring in red-orange color.
Red-footed Falcon is a migratory bird that winters in southern Africa. In our country it is a common migrant on passage, mainly in spring it can be seen in larger flocks. In groups, in breeding colonies, it also nests. Nesting individually is rarer. Red-footed Falcons prefer to occupy abandoned rook nests on trees in expansive steppes and open river valleys in eastern Europe and in central and western Asia. Red-footed Falcon is a predator that feeds mainly on insects. A smaller part of its prey consists of larger animals, such as rodents, small birds and amphibians. Usually we see it perched on a cable or a pylon of a power line, or hovering in the air, keeping watch for prey and, as soon as it spots it, quickly pursuing it. It is often observed how it hunts insects. Then it hovers in the air in one place for a while, lands on the ground, walks, then takes off again, hovers, lands and so on.
Red-footed falcon is primarily threatened by the increasing use of insecticides, which are the main culprits for the reduction of its main food – insects. Here it should be noted that the use of pesticides should be limited to the minimum that still allows a good yield and at the same time has as little as possible negative impact on other living beings. It is also threatened by habitat loss due to the intensification of agriculture on one hand and the abandonment of extensive grazing on the other, which also lead to a reduction of its prey. Finally, it is also threatened by the persecution of field rooks (Corvus frugilegus), which has led to a drastic decline in the number of red-footed falcon nests in nesting colonies.
