Kestrel Nest Box, Lake Durbe Live Cam

This camera looks into a kestrel nest box mounted on a power-line pole near Lake Durbe in Durbe Parish, western Latvia. The view shows the floor of the wooden box and, through its open front, a grassy meadow with a field track.

The lake lies in southern Kurzeme, just north of the small town of Durbe, among farmland and patches of woodland. The common kestrel is a protected species in Latvia that winters in Western Europe and returns at the end of March. Boxes on low-voltage poles give these small falcons safe nesting places in open country, where they hunt voles and large insects.

Unlike treetop eagle and stork nests, this nest is filmed from inside the box, so the whole chamber is seen at close range. When kestrels occupy the box in spring and summer, the birds are right in front of the lens.