The Biodiversity Forum, a centre for environmental and scientific dissemination of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the Biodiversity Foundation, offers a look at a lesser-known neighbour of the cathedral and other historic buildings in Seville, the Lesser Kestrel or Falco naumanni.

The Biodiversity Forum, a centre for environmental and scientific dissemination of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the Biodiversity Foundation, offers a look at a lesser-known neighbour of the cathedral and other historic buildings in Seville, the Lesser Kestrel or Falco naumanni.

This small falcon, which does not exceed 30 centimeters, is the protagonist of the exhibition “The Kestrels of the Cathedral”, which brings together some 20 works by several members of the Spanish Association of Nature Artists (AEAN).

The opening ceremony was presided over today by the mayor of Seville, Alfredo Sánchez Monteseirín; the institutional coordinator of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in Andalusia, Fernando Hiraldo, and a representative of the Spanish Association of Nature Artists (AEAN), Gabriel de la Riva Pérez.

The exhibition was conceived as a true collective art project. For some time now, several nature painters had been attracted to this species considered to be the smallest diurnal bird of prey nesting in Spain, and which has in Andalusia the territory with one of the most abundant populations in the Iberian Peninsula.

The Cathedral and other historic buildings in the Seville capital alone are home to 148 breeding pairs of this species that inhabit the different corners of its façades. For this reason, AEAN was interested in bringing together several of its artists in the same space to, for a few hours, observe the lesser kestrels and capture them through art in their daily activities.