Sparrowhawk

Scrappychimow · 18-06-2011 8:47am #1

Hello ,
I have seen a sparrowhawk three times over the last few days ,the first time he swooped down from the direction of the roof of my house towards a starling near the feeder, the hawk was screeching in the sky as he chased the starling , but I don't think he got him as I saw the hawk flying over head 10 minutes later.
About 7:30am this morning I heard the sparrows calling frantically they flew into a nearby bush and the pigeons took off two , then I saw him again , the hawk,when looking at him from underneath his body is mostly brown ,I take it he is a male sparrowhawk?

In the last two weeks two pigeons were plucked and eaten beside a bush at the end of my garden,now I know a wild cat has been hiding their early in the morning as I chased him out a few times.
The two pigeons that was eaten had their feathers plucked,the first one that was killed - all that was left was the feathers , the killer took the body.
The last pigeon that was eaten also had his feathers plucked ,the remainder of his body was hid under the bush ..his feet,head and wings still intact,just the insides of him eaten.
I have since cut down the bush to prevent the cat lurking there, but do you think the hawk was the killer or the cat?
Would a male sparrowhawk kill a pigeon and hid his remains?

Kess73 · 18-06-2011 10:44am

If the sparrowhawk was brown then it was a female.

I have seen the female Sprawk that visits my garden kill a number of feral pigeons and a few wood pigeons, and she tends to bring them under a rose bush to pluck and eat them.

Often all that is left is a pile of feathers and sometimes a foot or a wing or two. So what you found sounds very similar to that.

The second dead pigeon is a bit up in the air as to which killed it. I would still lean towards the hawk if it is in the same spot as they can be creatures of habit in a regular kill zone in terms of where they like to pluck/eat/lighten a catch. But it could be the remains of a disturbed kill where the hawk had to leave it's kill.

But at the same time a cat who killed a good sized pigeon would also leave behind a similar mess to the second pigeon you found, and a cat will often just eat some of the bird wheras a hawk can recycle almost all of a kill between itself and it's young.

I am leaning towards both kills being made by the female sparrowhawk you saw, with the second kill being either a disturbed plucking or a robbed kill.

Irish Fire · 18-06-2011 10:46am

Sounds more like a female......

Scrappychimow · 18-06-2011 12:45pm

Thanks for the replys ,whats the actual colour difference between male and female? Do both of them have brownish chests?

The funny thing is the day it went for the starling there was a load of pigeons it could have easily got , and when it flew off after the starling the pigeons took off in a group right behind it like they were chasing it.

Anyway I hope it stays away from my little jackdaw friend who visits each day , hopefully the crows will chase it away.

Does putting CDs in the garden put off the hawk at all , or is it a myth?

Kess73 · 18-06-2011 1:00pm

They both have a barred breast, but the male has slate grey feathers on his back/wings etc plus he has hints of red/brown that can be on his face/neck/breast.

The female's feathers are brown on her wings/back etc with the brown barring on her breast.

The female is always much larger than the male as well. The male tends to hunt smaller birds like sparrows, tits, and up to blackbird size (although he can take down a bigger bird if he has to). The female will hunt everything from the smaller birds mentioned right up to wood pigeon size and I have seen female sprawks kill various corvids like jackdaws and magpies.

Here are some pics I just got online of a male and a female.

Male

Female

Scrappychimow · 18-06-2011 1:12pm

Thanks for the pics , I didn't get a good enough view to differentiate ,but judging by the chest the first time I saw it ,the chest was a more darker brown ,like the males.
But that wouldn't make much sense maybe it was just the way the light reflected,also I only caught a glimpse for a split second.Today in flight it looked around the size of a magpie ,with a long tail too.

Kess73 · 18-06-2011 1:17pm

Scrappychimow wrote: »

Thanks for the replys ,whats the actual colour difference between male and female? Do both of them have brownish chests?

The funny thing is the day it went for the starling there was a load of pigeons it could have easily got , and when it flew off after the starling the pigeons took off in a group right behind it like they were chasing it.

Anyway I hope it stays away from my little jackdaw friend who visits each day , hopefully the crows will chase it away.

Does putting CDs in the garden put off the hawk at all , or is it a myth?

Imho it makes no difference whatsoever. The regular male sprawk in my garden will attempt attacks with a few feet of me when I am in the garden and he will often perch on the shed or house gutter right above me and try to outlast me if there are sparrows hiding in the bushes.

He has also stayed still within a bush as I pushed my camera phone towards him, so he would have been about an arm's length from me, and once we almost collided as he came around a bush chasing a small bird.

So if a 6'3 man does not put one off it's attacks I don't hold out much hope for your CDs.

If you do get your sprawks coming on a regular basis and you get the time to watch them, you will spot some very interesting tactics used by them at different times of the day and also different styles of ambushes.

Also around this time of year and on through the summer/early autumn you can see Sprawks hunting in pairs. Sometimes it is one of the adults with one of the juveniles in tow, sometimes it can be two and even three juveniles out together in the time before they seperate and make their own way, and an odd time you can see both adults work as a loose pairing where one will flush out birds into the open where the other sprawk will chase them.

Have also seen a male sprawk act almost as bait against corvids during the breeding season and the first time I saw it happen I wrote it off as an amazing coincidence, but over the last few years I have seen the same thing three or four times at least and I no longer think it to be coincidence.

Basically what I have seen is a male with a kill who takes his kill to the base of one of the trees in my front, where he gets the attention of the local jackdaws and often a magpie. The corvids kick up a stink and try to harrass the male. They chatter, caw, and come close to the male who just stands his ground and plucks his catch. They at some point a jackdaw or magpie (usually a jackdaw as I have seen it happen to a magpie like this only once) gets very close and out of the tree comes the female sprawk and hits the jackdaw.

I have also noticed similar with feral pigeons. The male will land on the roof and stay some distance from the feral pigeons. The pigeons if they stay tend to huddle together at the other end of the roof and they all face the male, who is just perched and not approaching them. Then the female flies in fast and hard from the blind side and there are feathers floating in the air as she hits a pigeon.

They are also fairly regular in terms of the times of their attacks once they establish a territory and over time you can pretty much anticipate to within 15- 20 minutes as to the times during the day when they come to your garden.

Kess73 · 18-06-2011 1:26pm

Scrappychimow wrote: »

Thanks for the pics , I didn't get a good enough view to differentiate ,but judging by the chest the first time I saw it ,the chest was a more darker brown ,like the males.
But that wouldn't make much sense maybe it was just the way the light reflected,also I only caught a glimpse for a split second.Today in flight it looked around the size of a magpie ,with a long tail too.

The female sprawk would be similar to a magpir in length, and often has a slightly greater wingspan than the magpie.

The male sprawk is a fair bit shorter than the magpie in length and height, maybe a third smaller, but has a similar sized wingspan.

If you ever get to see a male sprawk and a magpie standing a few feet apart (and it can be common enough thing to see) the size difference between them is striking.

The magpie is not always as willing to do the same thing with a female sprawk who is perched with empty talons though.

Scrappychimow · 18-06-2011 2:49pm

Kess73 wrote: »

Imho it makes no difference whatsoever. The regular male sprawk in my garden will attempt attacks with a few feet of me when I am in the garden and he will often perch on the shed or house gutter right above me and try to outlast me if there are sparrows hiding in the bushes.

He has also stayed still within a bush as I pushed my camera phone towards him, so he would have been about an arm's length from me, and once we almost collided as he came around a bush chasing a small bird.

So if a 6'3 man does not put one off it's attacks I don't hold out much hope for your CDs.

If you do get your sprawks coming on a regular basis and you get the time to watch them, you will spot some very interesting tactics used by them at different times of the day and also different styles of ambushes.

Also around this time of year and on through the summer/early autumn you can see Sprawks hunting in pairs. Sometimes it is one of the adults with one of the juveniles in tow, sometimes it can be two and even three juveniles out together in the time before they seperate and make their own way, and an odd time you can see both adults work as a loose pairing where one will flush out birds into the open where the other sprawk will chase them.

Have also seen a male sprawk act almost as bait against corvids during the breeding season and the first time I saw it happen I wrote it off as an amazing coincidence, but over the last few years I have seen the same thing three or four times at least and I no longer think it to be coincidence.

Basically what I have seen is a male with a kill who takes his kill to the base of one of the trees in my front, where he gets the attention of the local jackdaws and often a magpie. The corvids kick up a stink and try to harrass the male. They chatter, caw, and come close to the male who just stands his ground and plucks his catch. They at some point a jackdaw or magpie (usually a jackdaw as I have seen it happen to a magpie like this only once) gets very close and out of the tree comes the female sprawk and hits the jackdaw.

I have also noticed similar with feral pigeons. The male will land on the roof and stay some distance from the feral pigeons. The pigeons if they stay tend to huddle together at the other end of the roof and they all face the male, who is just perched and not approaching them. Then the female flies in fast and hard from the blind side and there are feathers floating in the air as she hits a pigeon.

They are also fairly regular in terms of the times of their attacks once they establish a territory and over time you can pretty much anticipate to within 15- 20 minutes as to the times during the day when they come to your garden.

Cheers for all the info, they sound like sneaky feckers ,
I'll keep an eye out for it around the same time as my previous sightings ,7:30am- ish and 5pm-ish

Birdnuts · 18-06-2011 6:26pm

Scrappychimow wrote: »

Cheers for all the info, they sound like sneaky feckers ,
I'll keep an eye out for it around the same time as my previous sightings ,7:30am- ish and 5pm-ish

Be carefull ascribing human emotions/characteristics to wildlife - the hawk is simply feedings its family like any other native predator. It just happens your garden is part of his territory, just like a pride of lions will have their territory somewhere like the Mara.Its all part of the balance of nature and sparrowhawks have been in this country since the ice-age along with their prey.

PS: The fact that he's taking feral pigeons is actually a good thing since there are classed as vermin and cause alot of hygiene problems in built up areas and feedlots etc..

Scrappychimow · 19-06-2011 10:20am

Hi Kess,
I spotted the Sparrowhawk again today, after 8am, again all the birds flew out of my garden.

It wasn't exactly over my house ,but I saw it about 100m or so away , it was flying when it started to slow down , and then it hovered , like a smaller bird would be slowed/fighting against a gust of wind on a windy day.
The hovering lasted a few seconds ,then it continued flying on, it didn't swoop down.

I just read on the internet sparrowhawks don't usually hover,have you seen your resident ones do this ?

Kess73 · 19-06-2011 1:43pm

Scrappychimow wrote: »

Hi Kess,
I spotted the Sparrowhawk again today, after 8am, again all the birds flew out of my garden.

It wasn't exactly over my house ,but I saw it about 100m or so away , it was flying when it started to slow down , and then it hovered , like a smaller bird would be slowed/fighting against a gust of wind on a windy day.
The hovering lasted a few seconds ,then it continued flying on, it didn't swoop down.

I just read on the internet sparrowhawks don't usually hover,have you seen your resident ones do this ?

Sparrowhawks don't hover in one spot, but they can catch the wind and hang in it for a few seconds which can give the impression of a hover.

If you ever see a bird of prey hovering for a length of time then it is most likely a kestrel.

Kess73 · 19-06-2011 1:52pm

Scrappychimow wrote: »

Cheers for all the info, they sound like sneaky feckers ,
I'll keep an eye out for it around the same time as my previous sightings ,7:30am- ish and 5pm-ish

Not so much sneaky feckers as brilliant ambush predators. As you watch them over time they will display quite a bit of intelligence in terms of their hunting techniques and how they can adapt those techniques to adapt to changes in their enviroment.

In many ways it is a good thing they are small, because if you could put the behavioural traits and temperament of a sprawk into say the body of an Eagle, you really would get a raptor with very few peers.

Actually when I think about it, a bigger stronger raptor with sprawk like traits is probably the Eagle Owl.

One thing I did not mention is that regular sightings of a sprawk or sprawks in your garden is a great sign of a healthy bird population in your area.

Scrappychimow · 19-06-2011 1:57pm

Cheers
It has me puzzled ,It wasn't windy this morning , i'll try get a picture next time.

Kess73 · 19-06-2011 3:14pm

Scrappychimow wrote: »

Cheers
It has me puzzled ,It wasn't windy this morning , i'll try get a picture next time.

Does not have to be a windy day for a sprawk (or many other birds for that matter) to be able to do it though. They can do it in the slightest of breezes by angling their wings just right and almost hitting stall speed for a second or so. It gets called wind-hovering when a bird uses the oncoming wind to hold it in close to one position.

A kestrel on the other hand can use it's wings in a rapid flapping manner to hover in the true sense of the word, but a kestrel can also wind hover in light to medium winds and in strong winds can get the same effect as wind hovering by holding it's still wings out wide and this is called kiting.

Scrappychimow · 21-08-2011 8:58am

Haven't posted here in awhile, its a female sparrowhawk alright, I see it flying over the general area almost daily , its been making a kill around my garden around every 2 weeks or so. This morning I saw 3 crows chasing it in the sky and one of the crows(rooks) actually flew in to attack it! looked cool

swifts need our help! · 21-08-2011 11:52am

I have never seen a sparrowhawk hover

Mark

Scrappychimow · 21-08-2011 1:52pm

swifts need our help! wrote: »

I have never seen a sparrowhawk hover

Mark

I was wrong it wasn't actually hovering like a kestrel does

Scrappychimow · 21-08-2011 7:10pm

Speak of the devil ,the sparrowhawk actually landed on my garden wall an hour ago,the first time I saw it so close just sitting there looking around...but the unbelievable thing is there was a magpie there about 6 feet away from the hawk and neither minded each other at all- couldn't get my camera in time

Kess73 · 24-08-2011 12:32pm

Scrappychimow wrote: »

Haven't posted here in awhile, its a female sparrowhawk alright, I see it flying over the general area almost daily , its been making a kill around my garden around every 2 weeks or so. This morning I saw 3 crows chasing it in the sky and one of the crows(rooks) actually flew in to attack it! looked cool

Keep an eye out if you have swallows in your area. You will see some great harrying attempts by the swallows if they spot the sprawk.

Your regular female should be moulting or starting the main part moult about now, so you may get to observe how her hunting techniques change to match.

My regular male is well into his moult and now ground hunts (as in hunts on foot to try and find small birds hiding at the base of bushes etc.) a lot compared to earlier in the year.

cscook · 24-08-2011 3:49pm

Scrappychimow wrote: »

Speak of the devil ,the sparrowhawk actually landed on my garden wall an hour ago,the first time I saw it so close just sitting there looking around...but the unbelievable thing is there was a magpie there about 6 feet away from the hawk and neither minded each other at all- couldn't get my camera in time

My OH said there was a sparrowhawk sitting on our hedge for a while the other morning. It flew into the window and then sat on the hedge to recover, till some magpies harried it away.

Half-cocked · 25-08-2011 10:17am

I was woken up at dawn today by loud screeching from the tree outside my landing window, it was a female sparrowhawk looking very agitated!

Kess73 · 25-08-2011 12:01pm

Half-cocked wrote: »

I was woken up at dawn today by loud screeching from the tree outside my landing window, it was a female sparrowhawk looking very agitated!

What you heard was most likely the sound of another bird or birds trying to ward off the sprawk or trying to draw attention to the sprawk.

A lot of birds will kick up a hell of a racket when a sprawk is in the tree/bush they are hiding in. One of the reasons they do this is to draw the attention of anything that might chase the hawk and give them a better chance to survive.

Half-cocked · 25-08-2011 12:54pm

Kess73 wrote: »

What you heard was most likely the sound of another bird or birds trying to ward off the sprawk or trying to draw attention to the sprawk.

No, it was the hawk, I was watching it screeching it's lungs out!

Kess73 · 25-08-2011 10:55pm

Half-cocked wrote: »

No, it was the hawk, I was watching it screeching it's lungs out!

Sparrowhawks make a keh keh keh keh keh slightly high pitched call rather than loud screeching. Will try to find a recording of their call online for you to compare to what you heard.

Kess73 · 25-08-2011 10:56pm

Here is an example of a sparrowhawk call.

http://www.garden-birds.co.uk/shared/scripts/quicktime.php?url=http://www.garden-birds.co.uk/birds/sounds/sparrowhawk.mov&title=Call

Half-cocked · 26-08-2011 9:27am

That wasn't it. Wonder if it was a peregrine? It was half hidden in an Elder tree, all I could see was the side of the head and some of its back. Can't think what other bird of prey would be sitting in a tree in suburban Dublin. If I'd heard the sound near water I would have said Water Rail!

Kess73 · 26-08-2011 10:23am

Half-cocked wrote: »

That wasn't it. Wonder if it was a peregrine? It was half hidden in an Elder tree, all I could see was the side of the head and some of its back. Can't think what other bird of prey would be sitting in a tree in suburban Dublin. If I'd heard the sound near water I would have said Water Rail!

I reckon there was another small bird or birds very close by, most likely in the same tree or very close by under cover, who were making the screeching noise and the movement of the Hawk's head gave the impression that the hawk was making the noise.

Very common to hear sceeching and the only thing that can be seen near where the sound is coming is a bird of prey.

A peregrine's main call is closer to a pitched screech alright, but the peregrine has a very distinctive "moustache" or "mask" on it's white/cream face and would look quite different to a sprawk plus is bigger than a female sprawk and a lot bigger than a male sprawk.

Here are a few pics that might help you id what you saw.

Peregrine head view

Sprawk head view (male)

Female

Mothman · 26-08-2011 10:59am

Perhaps the sparrowhawk had caught something and this was doing the screeching.

Kess73 · 26-08-2011 12:34pm

Mothman wrote: »

Perhaps the sparrowhawk had caught something and this was doing the screeching.

Not impossible, but generally a sprawk in a tree, if it has prey with it, has either already killed it at ground level or has something small like a sparrow in it's grasp which is all but dead anyway, and the amount of time a sparrow or similar sized bird has to get out a few last cries is timed in one or two seconds at the original point oif impact, and certainly not long enough to draw a lot of human attention.

If the sprawk had something noisy like a sparrow in it's grasp then it would almost certainly be applying the finishing touches on the ground with it's wings opened wide and there is no way the OP would have missed the struggling starling.

I see a number of sprawk kills every day of the week thanks to my resident pair of assassins:), and as such am very confident on how a male acts and on how a female acts with pretty much anything from a coal tit up to the size of a magpie, in terms of the differences in how the hawks kill and pluck the differing sizes.

Edit: Just realised that last bit might have sounded a bit pompus or arrogant, and I certainly don't mean it in that way and hope it is not taken that way.

jimdeans · 28-08-2011 11:23am

Good on you kess. I've learned a hell of a lot in this thread.

Sparrowhawk

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