Editing Common kestrel (section)

== In culture ==
[[File:Torenvalk (DSC 3525).jpg|thumb|Wooden common kestrel sculpture]]
The kestrel is sometimes seen, like other birds of prey, as a symbol of the power and vitality of nature. In "Into Battle" (1915), the war poet [[Julian Grenfell]] invokes the superhuman characteristics of the kestrel among several birds, when hoping for prowess in battle:

{{Poem quote|The kestrel hovering by day,
And the [[little owl]] that call at night,
Bid him be swift and keen as they,
As keen of ear, as swift of sight.}}

[[Gerard Manley Hopkins]] (1844–1889) writes on the kestrel in his poem "[[The Windhover]]", exalting in their mastery of flight and their majesty in the sky.

{{Poem quote|I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding}}

A kestrel is also one of the main characters in ''[[The Animals of Farthing Wood (book)|The Animals of Farthing Wood]]''.

[[Barry Hines]]' novel ''[[A Kestrel for a Knave]]'' - together with the 1969 film based on it, [[Ken Loach]]'s ''[[Kes (film)|Kes]]'' - is about a working-class boy in [[England]] who befriends a kestrel.

The Pathan name for the kestrel, Bād Khurak, means "wind hover" and in Punjab it is called Larzānak or "little hoverer". It was once used as a decoy to capture other birds of prey in Persia and Arabia. It was also used to train greyhounds meant for hunting gazelles in parts of Arabia. Young greyhounds would be set after jerboa-rats which would also be distracted and forced to make twists and turns by the dives of a kestrel.<ref>{{cite journal| author=Phillott, D.C.| title=Note on the Common Kestril (Tinnunculus alaudarius)|journal=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal| pages=527–528 | volume=2| issue=10|url=https://archive.org/stream/mobot31753003193114#page/527/mode/1up| year=1832}}</ref>