City of Falcons

Matera and its Lesser Kestrels

The Lesser Kestrel is a small falcon that lives in the mediterranean areas of our continent, being its diet strictly connected to insects. It's a bird of prey with unusual habits: it leads a gregarious life, hunting in group and nesting in colonies, mostly on the buildings of old historic towns. These two factors together constitute a particularity in the fascinating world of diurnal birds of prey, besides already represented in our cities by Kestrel and Peregrine Falcon. 

The sight of thousands of little shouting falcons flying in circles on the roofs of Sassi di Matera worth for itself a trip in Basilicata, even beyond the merits of a town which has very few rivals in Italy for beauty, and which is just penalized by its being away from the touristic traditional routes. In Matera (which together with the neighbors towns of the Murge represents the only Italian area where to see this phenomenon), the Lesser Kestrel enjoys good health and it's in numerical increase, in countertendency in regards to the negative trend of the species in the other areas of traditional presence (Spain, for instance). 

In the town the falcons feed, mate and breed on the roofs of the houses, on the eaves, in the walls holes; They are visible everywhere, since their arrival in March to their departure for the migration in late summer, in this way becoming a characteristic feature of the urban landscape. Despite all they keep a safe distance from inhabitants and tourists, even if they seem apparently indifferent to the human presence; an indifference absolutely reciprocal, if it's not for the few nature lovers lurking in the small lanes and on the terraces, the eyes behind binoculars and cameras, still watched  by passer-bys with curiosity mixed to fun.

See also the related Portfolio.