This is exactly where the wood pigeon sits and at first glance I thought that’s what it was.
But this is no pigeon. It’s an altogether more deadly kind of bird. It is a handsome male sparrowhawk.
It explains why, at peak snack time, the feeders along the edge of the pergola were completely empty of the usual birds.
In fact, I can’t help wondering whether that little something dangling from his beak is perhaps evidence of a successful hunt?
The feeders remained deserted until I went outside to pick some salad and disturbed his vigil. Away he swooped. By the time I was back inside to prepare the salad, the view from the kitchen window was once more busy with fluttering, hungry, small birds.
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Great photos of him. Sparrowhawks really are handsome birds.
This is the first time that I’ve seen a male visiting us, usually it is a female. Definitely handsome creatures and those wispy pink feathers at the edge of the chest are so cute!
Nice intimate shot. We stopped filling our feeders a few years ago after bears started raiding them. But we always felt bad when a hawk, in our case a Cooper’s, swooped down for the easy pickings.
Thanks. Bears are certainly a step beyond! Your Cooper’s hawks look remarkably similar to our Sparrowhawks. Same genus though I see. Today there were white feathers all over the lawn 😦
When the birds go quiet and even the squirrels stop chattering, there’s little question who’s in the neighborhood. This is an especially handsome fellow, and wonderful photos of him.
Thank you! Yes, it has that same atmosphere of impeding doom as a horror film.
It’s a beauty. At first, I thought it was a Cooper’s Hawk, common here in the US. Then, I realized that this post was an across-the-pond blogger. Wishing you and yours and everyone a good, safe and healthy 2021.
Thanks Tina! On checking, the two hawks are surprisingly similar, although it looks like the Cooper’s hawks are over twice the weight of Sparrowhawks.
Great photos, I love his colouring. Definitely more exciting than a pigeon! 😉
That’s for sure! It was his frilly edges and dusky pink stripes that had me surprised.
Super photos, Allison, he’s definitely a handsome guy. When I see a hawk eyeing our feeders, I generally find an excuse to go out to let it know he isn’t really welcome to do that! I know they have to eat, too, but it seems unfair to feed smaller birds to become dinner for them. 😉
Ha ha, great minds and all that. Why do you think I needed to pick beetroot all of a sudden?
😀
Great photos.
Thanks Susie!
That’s an amazing photo you have managed to capture, Allison – it made me aware of the pink chest of the male for the first time, after looking it up to check it out. We get sparrow hawks periodically here too – where they are welcome to as many collared doves and wood pigeons as they like!
I feel like that about our pigeons too. Is that bad?? It is that fluffy edge to the dusky pink that gets me. Don’t the white stripes through the pink make it look woven?
There can just be lot of them – and they wake me up early in the summer (mind you, one has been cooing before it gets light recently…) – but it’s not as bad having them nest under our social panels and the eggs rolling down into the gutters, as I read about recently!😁 Your photo of the sparrowhawk really was an eye opener, thank you
That sounds like a Wallace and Gromit cartoon! 🙂