House Sparrow 0 : 1 Sparrowhawk

I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork - Peter de Vries

Mary was busy in the garden yesterday while I was busy catching up with my Citizen Science work in our second kitchen (or my laboratory!). I could see through the kitchen window that Mary was looking at something on the patio. She quickly gestured to me to pass over my phone which I duly did. And this was the picture she took ...

Photo 1: Sparrowhawk with its Prey, a House Sparrow (3rd March 2026)

Our resident House Sparrows were the home team while the Sparrowhawk was the away team. Clearly an away victory!

We've had a Sparrowhawk in the garden before though many years ago. It also took a single House Sparrow and consumed it on site. I think only the beak survived! This time the Sparrowhawk was spooked and disappeared with its meal.

A few years back, our son came across another Sparrowhawk that had downed a wood pigeon and was about to enjoy a somewhat bigger meal. Generally, the larger female Sparrowhawk will take birds up to Wood Pigeon size (40-42 cm) whereas the smaller male Sparrowhawk is limited to Mistle Thrush (26-28 cm) and smaller. Both sexes are happy to take smaller birds like tits and sparrows.

Video 1: Sparrowhawk with Pigeon Dinner

Although primarily a bird of woodland, the Sparrowhawk is often found hunting in gardens where humans provide an all-you-can-eat buffet table, otherwise known as a bird feeder and/or bird table! Sparrowhawks need to eat 2-3 small birds (e.g. sparrows, starlings) per day. The male Sparrowhawk eats every day but the female can survive for 3-4 days on a single large kill such as a Wood Pigeon. There is no evidence to indicate that Sparrowhawks have a detrimental effect on the local small bird population.