The Doñana Biological Station – CSIC, with the collaboration of Lightsource bc initiates a project to study land use and habitat selection of lesser kestrels for foraging. The aim is to analyse the relationship of these birds with land uses, such as the implementation of solar power plants.

The study will begin in the spring of 2024 and will continue for one year, with the possibility of annual extensions, depending on the results in the initial phase. The project will begin with the GPS tagging of some individuals of lesser kestrel breeding in the north of the province of Seville, in southern Spain, which will allow monitoring of the distribution of this species within the territory according to land uses and movement patterns.

The lesser kestrel

The lesser kestrel is a small mainly insectivorous falcon, distributed in southern Europe, Asia and northern Africa. It is a trans-Saharan migratory bird that leaves European breeding areas at the end of September /October to return between mid-January and the end of March, although some individuals winter in the breeding areas.

The European populations are estimated at between 32900 and 42600 breeding pairs, with nearly half of them located in Spain. The lesser kestrel is a conservation icon in Mediterranean agricultural areas. Its population has experienced different fluctuations in the last decades. From 2005, a new decline is estimated to have affected more than half of the population. The main factors are the loss of breeding and foraging habitats.

Recently, the penetration of renewable energy generation plants in their distribution area has been identified as a potential emerging threat. In the case of wind farms, important accidents that may compromise the local viability of their populations have been described. However, there is scarce information on the use of solar power plants by lesser kestrels. Given the proliferation of projects to install solar photovoltaic power plants in areas that still conserve important populations of the lesser kestrel, it is necessary to study their behavioural patterns to implement management and conservation actions based on high-quality scientific information and to create designs that are beneficial for the species.