A Sparrowhawk?

[jezlee]

Hello all .... saw this bird at the bottom of the garden on the lawn, holding something under its talons and tearing at it .... I got my camera out, but even with a 300mm lens, this was the best I could get before it flew away. I've had to tweak this a lot in Photoshop to even get it to this standard, so the colours might be a bit off, but it sure looks like a Sparrow Hawk to me ... a female, probably - what does anyone else think? I went out afterwards and the remains on the lawn, judging by the feathers, was a House Sparrow ... rather apt, really ....

[demicav]

Looks like a male but I could be wrong.

[matt_xyz]

definitely a Sparrowhawk Jez, nicely caught. Looks like a male to me as it doesn't have the white stripe above the eye.

Matt

[rlchew]

That's a male Sparrowhawk Jez.

You were fortunate to get a photo .... they usually fly through so quickly.

Richard

[Maple]

I'll go along with a male Sparrowhawk. Although they are becoming more common around where I live and I've seen them plenty of times, I've only twice managed to photograph them.

[jezlee]

Thanks for the quick responses, guys .... I'll throw that book away which led me to believe it was a female then ....

[jezlee]

I just looked again, and it was me, not the book .... I agree it's definitely a male ....

[m1keanderson]

Originally Posted by rlchew

You were fortunate to get a photo .... they usually fly through so quickly.

Richard

You're not wrong there - was lucky enough to be looking out of the kitchen window just a couple of days ago when I saw one perform a 90deg vertical climb up the hedge, then another horizontal 90deg turn over the trellis next to it before immediately turning another 90deg to the right and tearing off after a sparrow it was chasing. I was like

Am I allowed to count that on my list of birds that have visited my garden?

[Tursiops2]

Originally Posted by m1keanderson

Am I allowed to count that on my list of birds that have visited my garden?

I would!

[Jennywrenny]

Originally Posted by Tursiops2

I would!

So would I

That was funny actually because I have just made a list of birds that visit our garden and I forgot to add the sparrowhawk - so that's 19 species now

Jenny