Sparrowhawk Behaviour

[JanieB43]

Hi please can someone help me ?

For a few days now there has been a sparrowhawk (judging by it's call it's a juvenile ) in the woods at the back of my house ( Burnley,Lancs ). I spotted it this morning sharing a branch with a magpie within striking distance and it looks to have adult male plummage and is roughly the size of a magpie or maybe just a bit larger. It's odd behaviour consists of being almost constantly on the wing,mewing like a kitten and chasing magpies & jays. Sometimes it appears to the "prey" though as the said magpies/jays are doing the chasing/mobbing. While being very entertaining this behaviour certainly seems odd

Hope somebody out there can enlighten me

Thanks
Jane

[bobbarber]

There was a theory a while back, that some birds (notably corvids) could tell whether a bird of prey was on a hunting trip by it`s body language. I don`t know if that could be a factor...Bob

[Picidae]

Originally Posted by bobbarber

There was a theory a while back, that some birds (notably corvids) could tell whether a bird of prey was on a hunting trip by it`s body language. I don`t know if that could be a factor...Bob

There could be something in that Bob. BoP and corvids certainly can 'happily' co-exist in the same nesting areas for example. I've seen Peregrines sharing nesting sites with Ravens, both species successfully raising broods, Buzzards perched in the middle of a Rook colony which only became agitated when the Buzzards made a hunting foray, a Kestrel sitting next to two Collared Doves that remained completely nonchalant .... etc

If the Sparrowhawk was a male, it might well be magpies/jays etc aren't forming the target prey anyway but smaller passerines.