Is this unusual ? Sparrowhawk vs Magpie ?

four18 · 01-12-2011 12:28PM #1

I am facinated at Magpies and how they adapt to any situation. I came across this video of a sparrowhawk attacking and drowning a magpie and always thought a Magpie would be too big for a Sparrowhawk to tackle ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0Ycdt-agOA&list=FLHbVDRyLqK-ORpEi9_O9CFQ&index=40&feature=plpp_video

Birdnuts · 01-12-2011 12:54PM

Not that suprising - the larger female can tackle birds up to the seize of a jackdaw.

Scrappychimow · 01-12-2011 03:58PM

four18 wrote: »

I am facinated at Magpies and how they adapt to any situation. I came across this video of a sparrowhawk attacking and drowning a magpie and always thought a Magpie would be too big for a Sparrowhawk to tackle ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0Ycdt-agOA&list=FLHbVDRyLqK-ORpEi9_O9CFQ&index=40&feature=plpp_video

A badass magpie could also kill a female sparrowhawk....

cuddlycavies · 02-12-2011 07:57AM

Saw one take a rook on the ground last year. Although wood pigeons are probably stronger and heavier and they take these all the time.

Scrappychimow · 02-12-2011 11:24AM

cuddlycavies wrote: »

Saw one take a rook on the ground last year. Although wood pigeons are probably stronger and heavier and they take these all the time.

..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPg_kHTjpNI

cuddlycavies · 02-12-2011 09:59PM

Thats a carrion crow. Rare here. Video inconclusive. Did it win?

cuddlycavies · 02-12-2011 10:17PM

Sorry, just read the caption. It didn't. What I saw on the road in greystones was a battle to the death. Rook put up a fight but had been injured by the initial strike and was eventually killed. In this instance it's the crow with the element of surprise and the hawk has no momentum to it's strike.

swifts need our help! · 02-12-2011 10:24PM

great fight!

Scrappychimow · 02-12-2011 11:14PM

cuddlycavies wrote: »

Sorry, just read the caption. It didn't. What I saw on the road in greystones was a battle to the death. Rook put up a fight but had been injured by the initial strike and was eventually killed. In this instance it's the crow with the element of surprise and the hawk has no momentum to it's strike.

Its a rook actually , and it killed the female sparrowhawk.
Also you say a wood pigeon is stronger and bigger? A wood pigeon isn't equipped with a sharp (lethal ) beak like that of the corvids , wood pigeons aren't even 'heavy' they just look fat .

Kess73 · 03-12-2011 10:39AM

Scrappychimow wrote: »

Its a rook actually , and it killed the female sparrowhawk.
Also you say a wood pigeon is stronger and bigger? A wood pigeon isn't equipped with a sharp (lethal ) beak like that of the corvids , wood pigeons aren't even 'heavy' they just look fat .

A wood pigeon is a heavy bird compared to a Sprawk. A male sprawk could be one third the weight of a wood pigeon and a female could be half the weight at times.

While you are spot on in saying that a corvid is better equipped to fight a sprawk, attacking a wood pigeon still holds some degree of danger through injury for the lighter sprawk as it does for any predator which attacks prey many times it's own weight.

cuddlycavies · 03-12-2011 10:42AM

Scrappychimow wrote: »

Its a rook actually , and it killed the female sparrowhawk.
Also you say a wood pigeon is stronger and bigger? A wood pigeon isn't equipped with a sharp (lethal ) beak like that of the corvids , wood pigeons aren't even 'heavy' they just look fat .

Good bit of meat on a pigeon. Not so much on a rook. Not so sure about your rook id anyway. Caption says crow. I know thats a generic for corvid. But it looks like a carrion crow.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/c/carrioncrow/index.aspx

Kess73 · 03-12-2011 10:44AM

cuddlycavies wrote: »

Saw one take a rook on the ground last year. Although wood pigeons are probably stronger and heavier and they take these all the time.

A rook is a big strong bird for a Sprawk to attack. Would be twice the weight of a magpie for example, and much stronger than a magpie. Would make more sense to me that what you saw came about after the rook was involved in trying to mob the sprawk and the hawk got a lucky break in the fight that followed.

Kess73 · 03-12-2011 10:46AM

cuddlycavies wrote: »

Good bit of meat on a pigeon. Not so much on a rook. Not so sure about your rook id anyway. Caption says crow. I know thats a generic for corvid. But it looks like a carrion crow.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/c/carrioncrow/index.aspx

What Scrappy saw is a seperate event to what is in the video.

cuddlycavies · 03-12-2011 11:06AM

Kess73 wrote: »

A rook is a big strong bird for a Sprawk to attack. Would be twice the weight of a magpie for example, and much stronger than a magpie. Would make more sense to me that what you saw came about after the rook was involved in trying to mob the sprawk and the hawk got a lucky break in the fight that followed.

You're possibly right there. It was on the road in winter just coming out of greystones near a rookery,

cuddlycavies · 03-12-2011 11:13AM

Kess73 wrote: »

What Scrappy saw is a seperate event to what is in the video.

Not sure what you mean! Read his post again.

V_Moth · 03-12-2011 12:11PM

cuddlycavies wrote: »

Not sure what you mean! Read his post again.

I think there is a mix-up with the video and your original post. The "Crow attacks Sprawk" video shows a Carrion Crow vs a Sparrowhawk. Your incident referred to a Rook and a Sparrowhawk.

cuddlycavies · 03-12-2011 12:35PM

V_Moth wrote: »

I think there is a mix-up with the video and your original post. The "Crow attacks Sprawk" video shows a Carrion Crow vs a Sparrowhawk. Your incident referred to a Rook and a Sparrowhawk.

Yes thank you VM. It is a Carrion Crow not a Rook.

Kess73 · 03-12-2011 04:59PM

cuddlycavies wrote: »

Not sure what you mean! Read his post again.

I mixed up users and post content.

For some reason I thought it was scrappy that said he saw a rook/Sprawk battle on the road, and then thought that you were saying to him that was was seen on the road was a carrion crow.:)

I could not have muddled it up more if I tried. Methinks I need to reply to things straight away in future, rather than hitting reply, then doing something in another tab before coming back to what I was going to reply to.

Apols for my mix up

Scrappychimow · 03-12-2011 07:01PM

I also saw a magpie and female sprawk less than 6 foot from each other on my garden wall , and the magpie showed no fear

Kess73 · 03-12-2011 10:57PM

Scrappychimow wrote: »

I also saw a magpie and female sprawk less than 6 foot from each other on my garden wall , and the magpie showed no fear

I see something similar on a regular basis with my regular male and the local magpies. They will be three feet or less apart at times with the sprawk trying to ignore the magpie.

The magpies don't try it with my resident female though. She is above average in size, she would be similar in size to a male goshawk and she uses that extra size to her advantage.

Tiercel Dave · 03-12-2011 11:35PM

Average female Spar - 10 oz, large female - 12 oz.
Male Gos ranges from 1 lb 6 oz to 1 lb 14. Dave

Kess73 · 04-12-2011 01:32PM

Tiercel Dave wrote: »

Average female Spar - 10 oz, large female - 12 oz.
Male Gos ranges from 1 lb 6 oz to 1 lb 14. Dave

Have weighed Male goshawks in the 450g - 500g range (roughly 15.5oz- 17.5oz), and have weighed large female sprawks in the 320g to 380g range (roughly 11.3oz - 13.5oz). Would put my resident female as larger than the heaviest female sprawk that I have weighed in the UK and would put her in the 400g to 420g bracket as she is unsually large even for a large female sprawk. Granted that is not quite in male goshawk weight range but I reckon she is close to it.

She has been a regular with me for quite a few years now, and I am lucky enough that she has nested in the same group of trees on my land every year since I first noticed her.

I could well be very wrong in my guesstimate of her weight, but I have been around raptors quite a bit as an enthusiastic amatuer, and don't have the worst eye in the world in terms of gauging size.I have also been pretty close to her on occassion when she was stationary, probably within 4 foot at times, so my guesswork on her is based on close enough observations, although nowhere near as close as I have been with her most recent mate (she has defo had two that I could differentiate between over the last five breeding seasons, the current male being there for at least three of them) who has had to be escorted from a few scrapes he got into which include coming into the house.:D

Is this unusual ? Sparrowhawk vs Magpie ?

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