The question on everyone’s lips at the moment is, with just over a week to go is the government going to surprise us all with a Christmas lockdown. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that wouldn’t be such a bad thing for about a third of the UK population who are secretly hoping for some festive regulations so they don’t have to see difficult family members and host unwanted guests.
But one family in Ellon, Aberdeenshire have already had to deal with an unexpected guest this year when a sparrowhawk flew into their home and landed on the Christmas tree.
The intruder hid herself amongst the decorations, until the police turned up and, assisted by wildlife rehabilitation charity New Arc, apprehended the raptor before releasing her without charge and sending her on her way.
This is not the first report of a sparrowhawk making its way into someone’s house. The sparrowhawk is a superb hunter that is increasingly found in gardens and urban environments. When hunting, it is singularly focused on its prey often unaware of the surrounding environment and any obstacles that might be in its way. Unfortunately, this means that sparrowhawks sometimes fly into windows and due to the speed they’re going at – up to 50 km/h – this can often be fatal. If windows or doors are open, they may well fly straight through them without realising, and this is how they end up inside buildings.
The sparrowhawk is a relatively small bird of prey although the female is up to 25% larger than the male, one of the largest size differences between the sexes in any species of bird. Males have blue-grey upperparts and pale underparts with pinkish-orange bars. Females are browner overall with dull white underparts and grey-brown bars. Juveniles are rusty-brown with paler edges to the feathers and rufous bars on their underparts. It has yellow eyes, that turn more orange as it ages, which distinguishes it from falcons.
The wings are broad with tips that curve back to a point and it flies with quick, deep wingbeats between short glides. The rounded wings and long tail have evolved for flight in heavily wooded areas. It does not hover when searching for food but waits in thick cover before ambushing its prey in a sudden, slanting dive or short, fast chase. During courtship displays, which take place in February, the female usually circles high above trees, while the male ‘sky-dances’ with a series of undulating stoops, climbs, and slow deep wing flaps.
Due to his meagre fat reserves, the male sparrowhawk can only survive for about 2 or 3 days without food. He hardly varies in weight during the year and puts on no extra weight for breeding, unlike many other birds. The female, being much larger, can last up to 6 days without food but her size means she has reduced agility and is less adept at catching prey in enclosed areas and hunts more in the open.
Old English folk names for the sparrowhawk include the blue hawk, the spar hawk, the spur hawk, and the stone falcon. Spearhafoc was a personal name used in England prior to the Norman Conquest in 1066. An eleventh-century Anglo-Saxon artist and Benedictine monk, called Spearhafoc disappeared with the gold and jewels that he had been given to make into the crown for King Edward the Confessor, never to be seen again.
The sparrowhawk has had an on-off relationship with humans for centuries. According to Horapollo, the author or a treatise on Egyptian hieroglyphs, the sparrowhawk with its outspread wings represents the wind, while in a Greek folk song, the sparrowhawk is able to command the wind. In Old Bohemian songs, it is a sacred bird that resides in the groves of the Slavic gods.
Its species scientific name is from Nisus, the king of Megara, in Greek mythology. The story goes that his daughter, Scylla, attempted to cut off a lock of purple hair that Nisus carried to protect him so she could present it to her lover Minos who had earlier tried to invade Nisus’ kingdom. Nisus supposedly turned into a sparrowhawk so he could attack Scylla who was then turned into a lark and forever condemned to fly in fear of her father. However, most Greek historians agree that Nisus actually turned into a sea-eagle or an osprey, in which case the name is a misnomer.
Some sources cite the sparrowhawk as taking an active role in the Mayan myth of creation, but the Eurasian sparrowhawk is not found in southern North America, the central area of Mayan civilisation. This misunderstanding is most likely because the American kestrel is sometimes called the sparrow hawk due to a mistaken connection with the Eurasian sparrowhawk which wasn’t corrected until 1983.
Although ornithologists are experts on the subject of birds, they’re a bit rubbish when it comes to ancient mythology.
Like many other birds of prey, the sparrowhawk is used in falconry and is popular with falconers in Ireland, Georgia, Turkey, and Tunisia. It is believed to have been the favourite bird of Akbar the Great, the Emperor of the Mughal Empire from 1556 to 1605, who kept them in his court and fed them seven sparrows twice a day. This seems a bit excessive when you consider a pair of sparrowhawks only needs about 2,200 house sparrows in a year, or 6 a day between them, to survive.
Despite this, many falconers say that the sparrowhawk is a difficult bird to train, in particular the male. In the Book of St Albans, the female sparrowhawk is listed as the priest’s bird, while the male sparrowhawk, or musket, is listed as the holy water clerk’s bird, placing them right at the bottom of the social hierarchy of raptors.
Although courageous, it is said to be hysterical, nervous, demanding, and hard to tame, and is known to become so persistent in chasing quarry that it doesn’t pay attention to its own safety. However, falconers who are able to train a sparrowhawk will find it excels at catching small prey, such as blackbirds, thrushes, starlings, and quail, and has a beautiful flight while doing so.
The sparrowhawk’s sublime hunting ability has also brought it into conflict with humans including game keepers and pigeon fanciers.
When the Game Laws were passed in 1831 to protect game birds and limit the season in which they could be legally killed, one of the requirements was that shooting estates employ gamekeepers to help protect the birds. Part of their role was to cull vermin such as foxes, magpies, and birds of prey.
At the same time advances were being made in gun technology with the addition of a second barrel and the refinement of the percussion cap firing system. The introduction of a fully functional hinged breech in the 1830s and cartridges with reliable firing pins gave birth to driven shooting was we know it today. Huge areas of the countryside were transformed as the sport increased in popularity and gamekeepers went to extreme lengths to ensure as many game birds as possible were available to be shot by paying visitors, driving some species of birds of prey almost to extinction.
At the 1870 annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science it was noted that, “The sparrowhawk is perhaps only the true enemy of the game-preserver; though at the same time it is probable that if the good and evil it does were justly weighed, the balance would be in favour of the hawk, its favourite quarry being the wood pigeon, which is now increasing to an extent injurious to agriculture.”
Female sparrowhawks can take birds up to the size of wood pigeons and an article in British Birds published in the 1930s confirms that wood pigeons were one of the most frequently taken birds.
When thousands of gamekeepers were conscripted for the First and Second World Wars, birds of prey had some respite from persecution and the numbers of sparrowhawks increased significantly. However, gamekeepers do still occasionally kill sparrowhawks and there have been several successful prosecutions in recent years.
Some racing pigeon owners are also concerned about the impact sparrowhawks have on their hobby. Sparrowhawks not only kill pigeons but also cause injury and disruption to pigeon flocks.
However, studies have shown that the numbers of pigeons lost to sparrowhawks and other birds of prey are small (14% of losses) when compared to other causes such as straying and exhaustion (36%), and collision with buildings or overhead wires (34%). Of the pigeons taken by birds of prey many of them had already strayed from the loft and become feral by the time they were killed.
Slips from the eye-corner – overtaking
Your first thought.
Through your mulling gaze over haphazard earth
The sun’s cooled carbon wing
Whets the eyebeam.
Those eyes in their helmet
Still wired direct
To the nuclear core – they alone
Laser the lark-shaped hole
In the lark’s song.
We find the earth-tied spurs, among soft ashes.
And maybe we find him
Materialised by twilight and dew,
Still as a listener –
The warrior
Blue shoulder-cloak wrapped about him,
Leaning, hunched,
Among the oaks of the harp.
As for the impact sparrowhawks have on songbirds, it is now generally accepted that the effects are minimal and that sparrowhawks will tend to move into areas where there is a surplus of songbirds, and keep the population stable. You can find out more about that here.
The sparrowhawk is one of the most incredible British birds that has adapted perfectly to its environment. It has evolved a long tail for tight steering, rounded wings for manoeuvring through forests, keen eyes under ridged brows for aerodynamic flight, and strong legs and powerful talons that allow it to snatch its prey in a matter of seconds.
A straw poll on our social media channels showed that the vast majority of people are more than happy to welcome sparrowhawks into their gardens, and although they will get upset if they see one take a much-loved garden bird, understand this beautiful bird of prey’s place in the food chain. In fact, the only creatures that definitely aren’t welcome are wasps. We’re inclined to agree – after all a wasps’ nest in your Christmas tree would be an even worse surprise than whatever hornets’ nest UKGov are about to unleash on us.
3 Responses
Just had one of these magnificent birds in my tiny garden, he comes for the songbirds and is rarely successful but I can often tell when he’s here as the sparrows operate a great (and very noisy!) alarm system. Have had a female too, who bagged herself a pigeon and neatly stripped out the breast meat leaving me to dispose of the rest. Fascinating article, thank you.
Bit out of date now with a reference to a potential Christmas lockdown.
Check the date ya muppet. Do you go commenting on all newspapers telling them there articles are out of date!!