The national animal of Liechtenstein is the common kestrel. This bird is an important national symbol to the people of Liechtenstein and has been for a very long time. They have played an important role in national folklore and symbolism and thus were officially named the national animal.
Liechtenstein is a microstate in central Europe, but that does not mean that it does not have as strong a sense of its own identity as any larger country.
The common kestrel plays a very important role in that identity and embodies many aspects of the country’s national values.
Let’s find out more.
What is the national animal of Liechtenstein?
The national animal of Liechtenstein is the common kestrel.
This is a bird of prey species belonging to the wider falcon family and goes by a few names including European kestrel, Eurasian kestrel, and Old World kestrel.
They are often simply called kestrels in English.
They occur over a fairly wide range, in Europe, Asia, and Africa, and sometimes reach the east coast of North America.
They have even colonized some oceanic islands, though vagrants are usually quite rare.
They measure around 12 to 15 inches from head to tail, and have a wingspan of around 25 to 35 inches.
Females, as is often the case with birds of prey, are noticeably larger than males; males usually weigh around four to eight ounces, whereas females wigh around 5 to 11 ounces on average.
Compared with other birds of prey, then, the common kestrel is quite small though still larger than typical songbirds.
They have long wings and a distinctive long tail.
They have chestnut, light brown plumage, with black spots on their upper side.
They have narrow black streaks, too, on the underside, and blackish remiges.
The males have fewer black spots and streaks than the females, which makes them quite unusual among raptor species.
Their heads are usually light grey in the males but brown and streaked in the females.
They will migrate south in the winter in the cooler parts of t heir range, though they are sedentary in many parts of the world.
They prefer open habitats like fields, shrubland, marshland and heaths.
As long as they have some alternate perching, they do not need trees or at least dense woodland.
They are also readily adaptable to human settlements and are not uncommon in urban environments.
So, they are not the most visibly striking bird of prey—so why are they the national animal of Liechtenstein?
Why is the kestrel the national animal of Liechtenstein?
The kestrel is the national animal of Liechtenstein for a variety of reasons.
On the one hand, they are seen as important symbols of a number of different national values.
They embody freedom and grace, soaring high in the sky and able to range over such a large area as they do and come and go, even between continents, more or less as they please.
Birds in general are often seen in this way, and birds of prey in particular are seen as kings of the sky.
For that reason, then, they are also more literally seen as great embodiments of Liechtenstein’s natural beauty.
Liechtenstein, though small, harbors much natural beauty, in its steep slopes and alpine forests.
The kestrel is very much at home in this kind of environment, and thus they are seen as very important to the more literal image of the nation.
But as with any symbolic animal, the people of Liechtenstein may have many different views over what precisely the bird embodies.
You might get many different answers to this question, and there is no single, official explanation for what the bird represents.
Is a kestrel the same as a sparrowhawk?
The kestrel is not the same as the sparrowhawk.
They are both distinct species, though they can look similar to the untrained eye.
Sparrowhawks are a similar length to the kestrel, but they have shorter wings.
Kestrels are less frequent gliders than sparrowhawks.
Their plumage is quite different; a sparrowhawk typically has streaks horizontally across its chest and underside, whereas kestrels have long, vertical stripes down their front and back.
Kestrels have sharp edged wings whereas the wings of the sparrowhawk are plump and rounder.
Both birds, then, are very majestic, and the differences can seem subtle at first, but they will become clearer with time.
What do kestrels eat?
Kestrels mostly prey on small mammals, and voles are by far the most common food.
They will also hunt woodmice and shrews, as well as other smaller birds and sometimes insects and worms.
Their diet naturally depends a great deal on where they live; in urban environments, for instance, they will more commonly target smaller birds because of the lack of readily available mammal prey.
As they will move around seasonally, they will hunt year-round.
They cannot survive on vegetation, unlike some other insectivorous birds.
They must always have access to live prey, so it is just a question of what they can find.
Kestrels may not have the grand size or hunting prowess of eagles, but they are nonetheless a sight to behold.
Birds of prey in general have always held symbolic and literal importance to people in Europe, both today and historically, and this is part of the reason why the kestrel is the national animal of Liechtenstein today.
There are many potential animals that could have been chosen, but the kestrel was a natural choice.