ICARUS Kestrels & Turmfalkenprojekt Wien

Project details:

Principal Investigator: Petra Sumasgutner, Ivan Pokrovsky, Martin Wikelski

Funding: Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior, Hochschuljubiläumsstiftung Wien

Project Duration: Ongoing

Project outline

The Vienna Kestrel Project is organised in a collaboration between the University of Vienna and the Natural History Museum Vienna, and has been investigating the ecology and urban adaptation of kestrels in urban systems since 2010. As the most common raptor in the city, kestrels nest in building cavities and other urban structures, making their breeding activities visible from streets and apartments across Vienna. The project relies on enthusiastic citizen scientists to report kestrel nest locations and breeding observations - especially dates of egg laying, hatching, and fledging - which helps researchers build a comprehensive nest database and track population dynamics. While trained staff and students conduct the handling of birds for ringing and sampling, community members play a key role by observing and documenting the kestrels’ breeding cycles, sharing photos, and increasing public awareness of urban wildlife.

In 2024, the Vienna Kestrel Project has expanded to include a high-resolution tracking component as part of ICARUS Birds led by the Max Planck Institute. Using lightweight ICARUS tracking devices that transmit location-time data via the Sigfox antenna network, we can now follow individual kestrels far beyond the breeding season. This allows us to uncover migration routes, post-fledging dispersal, habitat use, hunting behaviour, and causes of mortality in unprecedented detail. By combining long-term citizen science observations with cutting-edge tracking technology, the project provides new insights into how these iconic city dwellers move through, exploit, and survive in increasingly human-dominated landscapes.

Team

Collaborators:

ICARUS Birds. Kestrels. Austria, Portugal, Hungary – University of Vienna; University of Lisbon; University of Debrecen

Petra Sumasgutner, Shane Sumasgutner, Inês Catry, Marta Acácio, Zoltan Nemeth,

ICARUS Birds. Kestrel Denmark – University of Copenhagen

Jesper Madsen, Kasper Thorup, Anders Tøttrup, Amanda Johannisson

ICARUS Birds. Kestrels. Deutschland

Martin Wikelski, Kamran Safi, I van Pokrovsky, Steffen Weisheit,

ICARUS Birds. Kestrels. Finland – University of Turku

Toni Laaksonen, Erkki Korpimäki

ICARUS Birds. Kestrels. Hungary – Falcopolis.com

Péter Palatitz

ICARUS Birds. Kestrels. Italy – University of Tuscia; University of Milan

David Costantini, Giacomo Dell'Omo, Gianluca Damiani, Diego Rubolini, Sara Cioccarelli, Jacopo G. Cecere, Michelangelo Morganti

ICARUS Birds. Kestrels. Latvia – Swiss Ornithological Institute

Martins Briedis, Aigars Kalvāns, Edgars Lediņš, Imants Jakovļevs

ICARUS Birds. Kestrels. Lithuania – Lithuanian Bird Ringing Centre

Ričardas Patapavičius, Vytautas Eigirdas

ICARUS Birds. Kestrels. Montenegro – BirdLife Montenegro

Bojan Zeković

ICARUS Birds. Kestrels. Romania – Romanian Ornithological Centre

Ioana Cobzaru

ICARUS Birds. Kestrels. Serbia – University of Novi Sad; BirdLife Serbia

Nikola Veljković, Milan Ružić

ICARUS Birds. Kestrels. Spain1 – GAN-NIK Área de Biodiversidad; CMA of SEOBIRDLIFE; Migres Foundation; Universidad Miguel Hernández

Diego Villanúa, Alberto Artázcoz, Alejandro Onrubia, Mario Marcos Perez, Juan Manuel Perez Garcia, Adrián Colino, Lola Fernandez Gomez

ICARUS Birds. Kestrels. Switzerland – Swiss Ornithological Institute

Bettina Almasi, Jan von Rönn

ICARUS Birds. Kestrels. The Netherlands – Wageningen University
Ralph Buij

ICARUS Birds. Kestrels. UK – BTO
Greg Conway

Contact

Dr. Petra Sumasgutner
Email: petra.sumasgutner[at]univie.ac.at