Sparrowhawk diet?

[DOXHOPE]

I was a mole controller for many years in Northumberland, on one farm I did, the farmer had a dovecots with double figured number of fantails..I say had, because a female sparrow hawk took all but three, the remaining trio would cagely peak from the dovecot, nip out for a quick bite to eat, and straight back in..I saw her take one when I was there one day, I thought it was snowing, the number of feathers that came down..

[ashby_1963]

Thanks for your replies.

I notice that it is mostly the older text books that state the diet of sparrowhawks as being finches and sparrow-sized prey and nothing larger.

It could be that when these books were written, this was indeed their usual prey.

Quite a lot has changed in the sparrowhawk's world in the past thirty years -

1. There are a lot more of them around and their traditional prey has generally declined.

2. There has been a huge increase in collard dove numbers.

3. They are much more likely to occur in urban situations.

So it could be that the old books were correct in their time but the hawks have had to adapt in order to survive in their present numbers.

Just a theory!

Paul

[Jonsfotos]

A female sparrowhawk will easily take a pigeon.It will knock it to the ground and proceed to feather it.It will eat the best part of the carcass before it is light enough to carry off but will usually just leave the remains ( wings legs etc)at the scene .I used to keep racing pigeons many years ago and i saw many examples of sparrowhawk attacks which were mostly around the easter period for some reason.After that, it went quiet.

Jon