Influence of forced renesting and hand-rearing on growth of young captive American Kestrels

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Abstract
During 1974 to 1977, 78 pairs of captive American Kestrels (Falco sparverius) were forced to renest and the hatchlings from the artificially incubated first clutches were hand-reared to fledging age. Sexual size dimorphism, i.e., heavier females, became evident at some undetermined point between the 6th and 12th day of growth. Overall, hand-reared kestrels exhibited significantly slower growth rates and smaller body weights on the 24th day than did parent-raised birds. They did tend to "catch up" to the parent-raised ones, as there were no significant differences later with respect to juvenile and adult weights. Antebrachium and manus length, tarsus length and diameter, and skull width were significantly smaller in hand-reared kestrels.