Sparrow hawk out of shadows

THE dog and I were walking down the lane the other day when a bird burst out of a tall hedge in front of us, flew away at great speed at a height of a couple of metres and then disappeared back into the hedge. A dark coloured bird with a body not much larger than a blackbird but with much larger wings and tail. A male sparrow hawk.

They are the commonest birds of prey in Ireland but they’re not seen very often. They don’t show themselves by soaring like a buzzard or hovering like a kestrel. Like their larger relative, the goshawk, they are a woodland species and spend a lot of their time hiding in dense foliage and making short, fast flights to try and grab some small bird.

But in recent years some sparrow hawks have abandoned their reclusive habits and avoidance of human contact. There has been an increase in the number of people putting out food for songbirds in their gardens and these sparrow hawks have learned to capitalise on this by hanging around bird tables and feeders and ambushing the song birds.