Sparrowhawks are one of the most prolific hunting birds with over 120 species of birds having been recorded as sparrowhawk prey. They have also been known to capture small mammals, such as bats in flight.
Female sparrowhawks are usually 25% larger than males, and can tackle birds that weigh up to 500 g including pigeons, starlings, thrushes and magpies. Male sparrowhawks tend to prey on tits, finches, sparrows and buntings. During the summer months about 40% of a sparrowhawk’s diet is fledglings.
Although, it can be distressing to see a sparrowhawk capture a bird or find the remains it has left behind, research has found that there is no obvious decline in the numbers of songbird breeding numbers when sparrowhawks are present and they are no more common when sparrowhawks are not present. In other words, sparrowhawks do not control the populations of their prey, but the amount of prey available determines the number of sparrowhawks in the area.
Sparrowhawks tend to take fledgings or sick, old, injured and weak adult birds, therefore keeping the populations of other species healthy. Birds have evolved to lay many more eggs than is needed to keep a population stable, because so many of their young will die before they reach breeding age.
And what’s keeping the population of sparrowhawks in check? Natural predators include barn owls, tawny owls, goshawks, peregrine falcons, golden eagles, foxes and pine martens.
9 Responses
Interesting article. Just been watching a Sparrowhawk in flight being chased off by Swallows. It seems quite plausible to me that they might take young or sick birds out in flight.
It’s a shame I can’t post images, but just before Christmas I came down one morning to find Sparrowhawk less than 10 feet away from my kitchen window eating a pigeon it had just caught. The pigeon was alive, and remained so for about an hour (it kept trying to escape even though it was torn open). The hawk was a magnificent creature.
I got lots of high resolution images.
Sparrowhawk laned on our bird table in Whitkirk Leeds as I was eating my tea -made my day -beautiful !
I work at a high school in South London. Last week I was walking through the centre court area and saw a female sparrowhawk catch a pigeon and drag it into a nearby bush to eat it…. I called over as many students as I could to quietly watch her from a respectful distance…. Teachable moment about nature 🙂
Yesterday we had a sparrowhawk with a pigeon. There wasn’t much left but it came back today….just glad it was at the bottom of the garden. We can’t find the bones now so not sure if she’s eaten them
There is one that visits my garden on a regular basis and usually all that is left are the feathers and the guts. This one seems to like pigeons and doves.
There was a pile of feathers on the lawn, I then spotted it on the shed roof and managed to catch a video of it together with a magpie trying to steal bits that were plucked off also a squirrel made an appearance he paused looked a bit puzzled then scampered off, the magpie kept on scrounging throughout.
been finding lots of dead birds, mainly feathers left, head bitten off, mostly pigeons, live in kent, woodland next to garden ? sparrow hawk
Likely to be a cat, sparrow hawks would eat everything.
Sorry Paul, Iv got to disagree with hawks eating everything including feathers.. sorry! Sparrow hawks are well known for plucking feathers off birds before eating…. information on line..
The Sparrowhawk has no teeth; and it doesn’t like to eat feathers. So, it grips each one, and boldly plucks it from the dead prey, leaving whole feathers – the shaft tapering to a point that was once inside the bird’s skin – neatly removed, each in one piece.