Female American Kestrel With Lizard
MANHATTAN — UPPER EAST SIDE
Images by BEN CACACE
The nesting American Kestrels, on the Upper East Side in the mid 70s, have revealed the presence of lizards on their territory.
The photo above shows the female after this lizard was delivered to her by the male kestrel. Over a period of a week or so I spotted the male bringing up to 4 lizards to her, all intact and not prepared as some of the prey birds are.
In all my years in the city I've yet to see a lizard on the streets or in the parks.
Here's a reference to regional lizards on the "Amphibians and Reptiles of Long Island, Staten Island and Manhattan" website. The two lizards covered are: Italian Wall Lizard & Northern Fence Lizard.
The photo is not the best for identifying the lizard. Any tips on identifying these lizards in the scope would be helpful.
6 Comments:
I'm the author of the web site "Amphibians and Reptiles of Long Island, Staten Island and Manhattan" and am very familiar with the lizards of this area. can anyone supply me with a better picture of a kestrel with a lizard so i can id it? hard to tell from a back-lit picture.
but the only lizard that occurs in Manhattan itself is the introduced Italian wall lizard, Podarcis sicula. Fence lizards only come as close as Staten island.
Thanks for the question. I've made an ID via a scope view of an adult male. It had a green back with dorsal stripes running longitudinally.
Nice post you got here. I'd like to read something more about this matter. The only thing your blog misses is some pics of some devices.
Jeff Watcerson
Cell phone jammers
Italian Wall Lizards are also thriving at the Ridgewood Reservoir, along the Brooklyn-Queens border. Here's a link to a photo I took there a few years ago:
http://tinyurl.com/y5uezpz
Where in Manhattan are the lizards?
Currently Unknown ...
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