Bird of Prey Drumcondra

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The other day I happened to be standing on the wall of a raised bed when I saw a pigeon getting pinned to the ground in the neighbours garden by what looked like a bird of prey (pigeon managed to give it the slip, some sort of pigeon jiu-jitsu)

Today I thought I saw a similar bird going into a tree. I managed to get a crappy photo (through the window, it's facing the wrong way) before it flew off.

This is around Griffith Avenue, I didn't expect to see such birds in an urban area. Is that normal?

Any idea what it could be? I've seen this

magicbastarder

sparrowhawk - i'm in glasnevin, and we get the odd one around here too.

LoLth

That's nuts, I saw one out in Dublin 24 last weekend but thought "nah, we don't have those". it was in a back garden, well, on a fence and then dropped down into the garden after something. I remember thinking it looked all bird-of-prey like and discounted it as me knowing nothing about birds but the yellow legs have been bothering me since. Cool.

with this many sightings could it be the same family, do they range that far or are there more than people think?

iwillhtfu

LoLth wrote: »

That's nuts, I saw one out in Dublin 24 last weekend but thought "nah, we don't have those". it was in a back garden, well, on a fence and then dropped down into the garden after something. I remember thinking it looked all bird-of-prey like and discounted it as me knowing nothing about birds but the yellow legs have been bothering me since. Cool.

with this many sightings could it be the same family, do they range that far or are there more than people think?

More than people think - sparrow hawks would be common enough. You probably don't notice fox around your area either but they'll be there.

magicbastarder

i found one dead on ballymun road recently.

LoLth

iwillhtfu wrote: »

More than people think - sparrow hawks would be common enough. You probably don't notice fox around your area either but they'll be there.

I've seen a few alright (foxes that is), usually early morning lurkers. But thats the first sparrow hawk I've seen in the wild

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LoLth wrote: »

I've seen a few alright (foxes that is), usually early morning lurkers. But thats the first sparrow hawk I've seen in the wild

They are relatively common in urban and sub urban gardens.

mackeminexile

There are loads of Sparrowhawks around. They're really fast, hunt smaller birds on the wing in hedgerows etc. Lovely looking bird if you can spot one on the ground as you did.

dusty207

Saw a sparrowhawk in Artane a week ago, hovering for a while then dropped like a stone behind some trees. Amazing to see.

Dial Hard

Plenty of birds of prey in urban areas. Sparrowhawks and Peregrine Falcons mostly, but there's a pair of kestrels nesting about 5 minutes from my house in Firhouse. In fact one of them just flew past me while I was walking my dog Beautiful birds.

magicbastarder

PMan, if you're living on that side of the city, keep an eye out for buzzards over the undeveloped land beside ikea if you find yourself passing by there.

Esel

dusty207 wrote: »

Saw a sparrowhawk in Artane a week ago, hovering for a while then dropped like a stone behind some trees. Amazing to see.

Kestrel, no?

mackeminexile

Esel wrote: »

Kestrel, no?

yep much more likely to be Kestrel if hovering. That said you can see Buzzards hovering occasionally too! Hard to mistake a Buzzard though. There are loads of them around all over Dublin but masses in Fingal, daily sighting for me in Lucan too