Sparrowhawk hunting technique 

I saw one of these really up close and personal today. Pity I hadn't my phone on me, although I don't think I would've thought to film her even if I had my phone, as it was a bit of a shock. I recently put up a bird feeding station, and have been enjoying seeing all of the various birds feed. I was aware of Sparrowhawks, but had never actually seen one. I figured the likelihood of a Sparrowhawk attack in the garden was pretty slim, given the nature of my neighbourhood. There are a lot of high walls between gardens, so the Sparrowhawk can't do its favoured technique of gliding just above ground, at high speed to surprise the small garden birds. Anyway, today, I was watching a female Blackbird foraging at the end of my garden. I must've looked away for a second, because the next thing I knew, I heard a loud fluttering sound. I thought it must've been a feral pigeon, landing unusually quickly, at the feeders, but when I searched the garden, I saw the Sparrowhawk, from behind, looking like it was trying to tuck into its meal. I have no idea how she attacked or where she came from. I don't know what happened next, maybe I startled the Sparrowhawk, and the Blackbird got away. Thinking back now, I think the Sparrowhawk must've knocked herself senseless, against the wall, and had a grip of something on the ground in its talons, thinking it was the Blackbird. As I said, I had approached the Sparrowhawk - a female - and she looked around, but didn't fly off. This is why I think she might've concussed herself. She managed to get up onto the wall. By now, I was so close, I could've reached out and grabbed her. If I had my phone, I could've had an excellent shot of her. As I looked at her, she turned her back to me, and disappeared down the other side of the wall, into a hedgerow. It was really quite thrilling, seeing a Sparrowhawk up close like that!

I found this video after I was in the shed sitting at a table.i am fitting new windows but havnt put the glass in yet.im leaving it out till the swallows finish for the year.They had 3 more chicks and they have started to hunt them selves but are still staying in the shed.Anyhow there was a flutter at the window and I seen the swallow fly back out but a sparrow hawk came in and landed on this stand about 2 meters from me and looked at me with them big yellow eyes and took of out the door in a flash.I am obsessed with them now.What a beautiful bird !

Great video, keep up the good work. Jon Cornwall

Beautiful Video! Greetings from Germany! :)

Thanks for this! We were really pleased to see them visit our feeder, as it's showing we have well balance food chain here now. From the tiny bugs right up to these magnificent hunters!

Fantastic oratory! Mellifluous tones 👍🏻

My door was open to the garden this afternoon and I was sat at my kitchen table. All of a sudden there was a commotion amongst the garden birds and I looked up to see a sparrowhawk (a male) had swooped down and landed on my fence approximately 10ft away from me. It wasn't successful in catching anything that time, by the initial sounds I think a blackbird had a narrow escape. The hawk then sat there just looking around for about 30 seconds so I had a really good close up view of it through the open doorway. That is the first time I've seen one land in my garden and almost certainly the best view of one I'm likely to have. It was amazing to see.

amazing sight and capture. in ireland they were once rare but now they are common.

I was lucky enough to witness one of these beautiful hawks catch and pin its prey down maybe 3ft away from me in my garden today! It was amazing 💙

Thank you Alex. Excellent narration if I may say so. Just witnessed a female chaffinch taken utterly by surprise by a male sparrowhawk. It was a pretty bittersweet moment, for she was enjoying the mating attentions of a male atop one of my dry stone walls. Whisked up at astonishing speed - apparently from nowhere - and carried away. Never knew what hit her, which is just as well!

We've had a bird feeder in our garden for about 6 months now. We now not only feed the green finches but we feed the sparrowhawks, two of them, on the green finches that all look very fat tasty. Neither of us have seen anything like it out side of telly of cause. They come swooping in take them straight off the feeder and sit in the surrounding trees eating the finches. Amazing stuff

Appreciate your video

Thanks.

I think I saw on of these in my garden in Derbyshire today! Beautiful

Thanks as always for sharing Alex, I have one visit from time to time. The last visit was to find the hawk sorting out a collared dove on the ground. atvb t ..

Alex this is a lovely video and beautiful footage the birds and nature very relaxing and the close ups very nice i liked it very much good work

This predator is a beautiful bird to watch, I got some photos of one in our back garden about 5 years ago and it was a male (stunning colour) then I saw a female 2 years later swooping low around the farmhouse from the back on to the front lawn and into the shrubs, hunting for her prey.

Excellent thank you !

Nice recording, love them and big brother goshawk.

I just had one fly through my yard. Beautiful and yes all wildlife movement ceased.

Thanks for sharing

Thank you! It`s my favourite bird. I watch him hunting around the bird feeder in my garden, so I`ll upload videos about his actions in a couple of weeks, I think)

100% my best bird

Nice work.

Indeed wonderfull

1 sits on bird table next door regularly

Just saw one sitting opposite a dove on our bird table . In the past one swooped and succeeded in grabbing a dove . Thank you for such great photography

Hello. Great movie and channel. Subscribed right away.

Thanks for not putting in music track. Nice

Nice little video there Alex. I live in East Devon and see these flying very low along the lanes. Used your video to identify 👍🏼

Last summer I had a Sparrowhawk come to my birdbath everyday and stay for hours. I live in Phoenix and I assume it was cooler there. She'd stand in the water for more than an hour. Only saw her bath a couple times all summer, but what a show that was. I felt like I learned her habits. In the morning she'd either stay the entire day or for 45 minutes before taking off and coming back a bit later. My assumption was this was determined by whether she got something to eat. Generally by 10-11am she was in the bath for the day. She did drink water. She's in the neighborhood because I hear her calls. I assume it's the same bird. But have never seen her at the bath all winter. I got to see her hunt often. She has nearby perches she hunts from in my view. She sees pigeons across the street and launches a surprise attack flying low and darting thru a very small gap in a hedge and suddenly she's just a few feet from the pigeons at speed. But she's not often successful. She turns extremely fast but at speed she really only has a chance if the pigeons go the wrong way. She will also chase small lizards on the ground and through trees. It seems to me they are very good at running down prey on foot through dense cover. It was a wonderful summer. Hoping she returned this summer. The downside is I was getting more than 100 birds a day until the Sparrowhawk claimed the birdbath. However, pretty funny to see a small bird fly into the birdbath before realizing there's a Sparrowhawk standing there. They'd be just an couple inches apart.

Nice little video, we have 3 that hunt in our garden, stunning birds.

This a Sharp-Shinned or Coopers Hawk?? I thought the American Kestrel was otherwise known as the "Sparrowhawk"......

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We had one of these coop up in out workshop for a while (about 150×60m warehouse) it would catch pigeons and devour them leaving piles of feathers and bones. One time we caught it halfway eating one, it got spooked and flew back up to the rafters. In less than a minute it dived down and murdered another pigeon since we interrupted its meal 🤣

Do sparrowhawks take starlings out the air?. Last summer i saw what i think is a sparrowhawk flying about 10 ft above ground level through the allotments behind my garden, it got close to some fairly large fruit trees that were close to a large sycamore tree and just as 2 starlings took flight together from the fruit trees to go to the huge sycamore the bird of prey came up between the fruit trees and the sycamore and grabbed 1 of the starlings from midair and flew up and over the gates, i get the feeling it dropped the starling though as it only had it in one talon and after flying over the gate with the starling it was back just 5 minutes later but higher in the air than before. I know it wasnt a kestrel or a buzzard but this year we have had peregrin falcons overhead. Im a keen bird of prey fan and have been around many types but last years 'sparrowhawk' was a good 150ft away and ive seen only 1 in flight with my own eyes flying just above ground level. With the peregrines coming this year tho and having not seen the sparrowhawk again since that day im uncertain now which bird it was. I dont think peregrines come from below to strike a bird mid flight as ive only ever seen them dropping like a ninja out the sky from above to strike. Any ideas?

"hunting technique" ?? "Sparrowhawk sits in a tree" would be a more informative title

good video searched for this after just witnessing a sparrow hawk do exactly what they do best, take a sparrow out of a bush in our garden, after catching its prey it sat on the lawn for a few seconds until its prey ceased resistance looking around before flying off to enjoy its meal, great bit of nature just outside my window.

Thanks I just had a Sparrowhawk eating something in my garden. Was not entirely sure what it was but this video confirms it was a Sparrowhawk. However this one looked like it was eating a rodent as was pulling off fur and not feathers.

I got to see one catch a sparrow or another time of bird right in front of my eyes. I spent lockdown watch nature in small park which is barricaded by an alotment and bushes on the side of the house. Happened so fast but your herd the approach and impacted. Took a good 10sec to establish what it was hacking at the screaming bird. I'll treasure that moment for ever

Very cool video man! Love it. What camera do you use to film birds?

Lovely footage! We had a sparrow hawk pay us a visit to our garden, it attempted to grab one of birds feeding at our table but was unlucky in its attempt. It surprised me in that it perched on the berry bush for some considerable time enabling me to capture some footage to identify it as a sparrow hawk. It was on a lower part of the bush with Great Tits, Blue tits and green finch perched above it continuing to feed. It was a remarkable experience and my first encounter with the breed, Therefore Prompting me to research and leading me to this interesting video confirming my sightings and behaviour of the species. Subbed and liked.

Lovely piece of footage. Only I'll say its he is a she. That's a female sparrowhawk. The musket or male is a lot smaller and more bug eyed as his eyes are big compared to his head. But this is a beautiful mature female.

I observed sparrowhawks in my garden this morning. The magpies and crows work in unison to chase the hawk around, preventing it hunting their young. When the hawk lands on a tree branch, the defending corvids walk along the branch towards it. The corvids flap their wings and chest bump it off the branch. The pigeons and doves take high, exposed positions in the trees and watch, motionless. There is a second hawk however. It flies low between bushes and along fencelines, using the distraction of the first, to hunt the small birds. I think it took a blue tit from the tree above me.

Just had one have a close miss in my garden soooooooo quick they are... ridiculously fast birds

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I'm sorry but I didn't see the hunting technique.

This is a female, yes?

You said he, that’s a female..😂

Not a Sparrow Hawk. Only 4.1 oz for Male, 5.5 oz female. Orange breast stripes and long yellow legs indicate most likely a Sharp-Shinned Hawk. Many defining differences can be seen at Cornell Lab Ornithology site.

We had a female sparrowhawk take out a pigeon that was perched on our apple tree - my husband's office is upstairs and we saw this huge explosion of feathers and when we looked down, she was under the tree standing on the pigeon with her wings splayed over it, like 'what pigeon?' She then started eating it. I filmed and photographed her as she was barely ten feet from our conservatory. Drove to another town, picked up my son, came back and two hours later she was still there chomping away on the carcas. Then she was gone. It was the most extraordinary thing to watch. I've never heard my garden so devoid of bird sounds, not one tweet or trill for the whole thing. Our pair of magpies initially flew down but she squawked at them then they flew off then kept their distance too. Once she left we inspected the remains - there weren't any. Just feathers. She's been back since but not in sight of the house. She was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. RIP Mr. Pigeon. Love your films.

The halcón cannot to cach a eagle because the eagle to eat easy.

I saw one yesterday swoop and catch a blue tit on my feeder. It was so fast...

I just shot a sparrow hawk on the pole in my backyard. They kill almost every species of bird and I prefer to have hummingbirds over these predators