Sparrow Hawk

[paul garrod]

I have just returned home to find a Sparrow Hawk sitting on my fence this is brilliant news as i live in a city what do you think?:)

[PiratesAhoy!]

It's not brilliant news for the local bird population!

[paul garrod]

No i agree but to a novice twitcher it was brilliant to see.
Can i discourage it?

[PiratesAhoy!]

If your garden or surroundings have a lot of bird life, then the sparrowhawk will be there looking for an easy meal. If you wanted to discourage it, you could make it more difficult to get at the birds. Moving the feeders, etc., to 'sheltered' locations, with easily accessible cover (shrubs, trees, etc) will help.

Some people report success with hanging shiny things in the garden, such as CDs attached to string, dangling in obvious places. These can distract raptors such as the sparrowhawk, but need to be moved every now and again so the hawk doesn't get used to them.

Crows and other corvids will mob a sparrowhawk, as will gulls, so if you have a lot of them around, the sparrowhawk may think twice about visiting.

However, some would argue that you don't want to be discouraging it - that you should be thankful of seeing the bird in your neighborhood.. I'm not one of them though ;)

[Mobee]

We have regular visits from a sparrowhawk and I must admit to mixed feelings about it. On Good Friday I saw it sitting on the fence and watched until it flew away. I then went out into the garden and found a half eaten blackbird, a body, no head or tail and feathers all over the ground. The next day only the legs were left. I wish it would find its meals elsewhere. I have tried putting feeders in dense cover but then I can't see the birds feeding. I'll think I'll try the cds but don't they frighten the other birds as well. I have two bluetits building a nest in a box and don't want to scare them but equally I would hate the hawk to take one.

[PiratesAhoy!]

The other birds will quickly get used to the CDs, so don't worry about that. In fact you can use anything bright and shiny - doesn't have to be CDs.

[paul garrod]

Thanks for all the tips i will try them and see how it goes, but it was a great experience to see it and watch it hug the roof line as it left.

[brigitte]

We have one in our garden that picks off the woodpigeons, and we are in the town. Obviously a female as they are large enough to do this. She often parks herself nearby one of the bird tables - difficult to know whether or not to shoo her off.

[Morgannon]

I find them a good thing and a bad thing. We have a resident pair and while the male is still trying to catch small birds(never seems to succeed though, they're too fast and we have so many birds that someone always sees it first) the female has decided that the small birds are way too much bother and has found that the rather dumb Feral Pidgeons are an easier catch and have more meat on them.
Considering the Feral/Town Pidgeons are a bane in my garden she's more than welcome to thin the population down! It's possibly why we have other raptors hunting too.

[jilla]

I've got to say, there does seem to be more and more people, reporting sightings of sparrowhawks in the city. A sign of a healthy population I guess. I can understand people having mixed views on them, I haven't recovered from the sight of seeing a female devour one of our starlings on the back lawn! My only concolation is the girl at work sees hers every week, the birds around her garden must be nervous wrecks by now. I guess the one to look at it is, a few years ago we wouldn't of had any chance of seeing sparrowhawks, as they where almost wiped out before.