KESTREL-FEMALE

This is an American Kestrel (Falco sparverius), America's smallest falcon. A.K.A. Sparrow-Hawk.  It's about the size of a Jay only a bit chunkier.
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The male can be distinguished from the female by having bluish-gray colored primary wing feathers compared to the female's brown color.
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This one was doing some early morning hunting.  I saw her fly up to the overhead wire with a small rodent in her left talons.  I'm thinking it might have been a shrew as it appeared smaller than a mouse or vole; perhaps it was a very young rodent.  In any case, you can still see the remains of it in her left foot.  I was in the car...she kept moving ahead of me down the wire.  Hand-holding 900mm out the window while leaning .......not as sharp as it should be.  Mea culpa.  I shot the Z9 in DX mode which extends the 600mm to 900mm....it also magnifies focus errors.
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I should have shot at 1/1,000th or higher; would have mitigated some of the soft focus.