---
title: "Falcão-americano"
description: "Falco sparverius — Aves. The American kestrel (Falco sparverius) is the smallest and most common falcon in the Americas."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/pt/animal/american-kestrel
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Falcão-americano

> Falco sparverius — Aves. The American kestrel (Falco sparverius) is the smallest and most common falcon in the Americas.

- Scientific name: *Falco sparverius*
- Category: `birds` (Aves)
- Habitats: `grassland` (Campos e prados), `urban` (Cidades e jardins)
- iNaturalist observations: 129004
- Wikidata: [Q651545](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q651545)
- iNaturalist taxon: [4665](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/4665)

## Names

- en: American Kestrel
- de: Buntfalke
- es: Cernícalo americano
- fr: Crécerelle d'Amérique
- nl: Amerikaanse torenvalk
- pt: Falcão-americano
- pl: Pustułka amerykańska

## Countries with the most observations

US (81409), MX (14370), CA (8317), AR (5200), BR (1960), CL (1483), CO (1256), PE (1153), EC (1141), PR (693), BO (543), DO (520)

## Summary

The American kestrel (Falco sparverius) is the smallest and most common falcon in the Americas. Though it has been called the American "sparrow hawk", this now obsolete vernacular name is a misnomer; the American kestrel is a true falcon, while neither the Eurasian sparrowhawk nor the other species called sparrowhawks are in the family Falconidae, hence only very distantly related to the American kestrel. It has a roughly two-to-one range in size over subspecies and sex, varying in size from about the weight of a blue jay to a mourning dove. It is a very successful species, occurring almost throughout North and South…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_kestrel

## Photo

![Falcão-americano](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/american-kestrel/medium.jpg)

Photo: Frank Thomas Sautter · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/259269689

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/american-kestrel?lang=pt` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).