Have only seen these birds twice, they’re pretty cool. They live in Eurasia and are usually found in woodlands but they have adapted well to the urban lifestyle. The one on the right is a female that happened to pop by one day. Was photographing some jackdaws until they all left because the T-1000 of birds showed up out of nowhere. The males are a bit more orange at the bottom then the females.
They have very sharp claws and a less sharp beak. They use the claws to pin a bird to the ground and squeeze all the life out of them, then they use their beaks to pluck off some feathers so they can start eating. They usually hunt birds that are the same size or smaller. They love tits and gobble those up every chance they get. That’s also the reason they thrive in urban areas, lotta small birds AKA lotta snacks. These guys are sometimes the snack themselves though, for they are often prey for goshawks and owls.
Nothing really special about their breeding habits, they produce little fluffballs that live in a nest. Don’t get close to their nests though, I don’t think anyone has died from a sparrowhawk, but I wouldn’t chance it. Their talons could easily hit an artery and kill a person. If you’re pure of heart you have nothing to worry about though, birds only attack people who deserve it, but accidents do still sometimes happen. Have you guys seen that article of a hawk repeatedly attacking a bald man? Guy was bleeding from his bald head, they caught the hawk though, which I think is a shame. That hawk knew what’s up.
Got kinda sidetracked but the sparrowhawk is a cool little bugger, hope it shows up around my area more often, but not so often that the local songbird population goes down the drain.
