Thanks everyone I've been duped by a sparrowhawk before
I got a quick glance as it landed in a shrub and just thought it was a blackbird. It seemed too small to be anything other than a kestrel but didn't match the picture in my bird book. It stayed for about 5 minutes preening and posing, failed to catch a bird and then flew off.
It would be interesting to know how often garden Sparrowhawks seen are females; from what I've heard, they tend to hunt in more open country than the males, which are more strictly woodland animals.The substantial difference in size between them gives a pair the chance to hunt different sized prey.
It would be interesting to know how far this applies to other raptors.
In nearly 30 years of keeping waterfowl & aviary birds in a town garden, the only female Sparrowhawk [other than flying over] killed a pinioned Ferruginous Duck. The much smaller male Sparrowhawk has shown a tendency to harry aviary birds; Sparrowhawks don't differentiate between wire netting and a tracery of twigs. I actually caught a male [by hand]that was clinging to the wire eyeing up some Laughingthrushes, took it indoors to show the family, and threw it up in the air when back outside. Five minutes later it was back on the aviary -- I clapped my hands at it, & it flew off never to return.
The much smaller male Sparrowhawk has shown a tendency to harry aviary birds; Sparrowhawks don't differentiate between wire netting and a tracery of twigs.
I have the same problem. My birds flee indoors when they hear the alarm calls of Blackbirds, swallows etc and sometimes are very nervous for a while after. I know of other people who keep birds who get these visits too.
A male Sparrowhawk also tried to carry off a young pigeon some years ago but couldn't lift it off the ground.
Appears to be a Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Accipiter cirrocephalus). They are a bird of prey. This one looks to be a female. Females are lighter in color. They are from the family Accipitridae. They prey mainly on starlings. They also eat a lot of pigeons.
