Your Birding Month

JANUARY

Birds to add to your list this month include Water Pipit, Glaucous Gull and Black-tailed Godwit

BIRD OF THE MONTH

SPARROWHAWK

Sparrowhawks are little masters of the stealth attack. In fact, stealth seems to be a key feature in most parts of the Sparrowhawk lifestyle. This is quite a different approach from that of our commonest falcon, the Kestrel, which we featured as Bird of the Month in November, and which is a positive show-off compared with a Sparrowhawk. Kestrels spend much of their time hovering in full view (though the idea is not to be seen by their mammalian prey!), or perched on telegraph poles, on the top of trees, and so on. Sparrowhawks are largely hidden in woodland or sneakily within a bush, occasionally dashing low over the ground and bush or fence-hopping to surprise their avian victims.

Yes, they do sometimes soar, and shortly will be performing their ‘sky dancing’ courtship display, flying high with the under-tail coverts spread and diving and twisting. But the rest of the time they are stealthy. You may be surprised that the estimated breeding population of the Sparrowhawk is not so very different from that of the Kestrel (35,000 pairs compared to 46,000 respectively). And while we are on the subject, you may be even more surprised that, in addition to our most common small diurnal raptors, there are an estimated 50,000 pairs of Tawny Owl in the UK, keeping the nocturnal small woodland mammals on their tiny toes.

Sparrowhawks, however, are almost exclusively bird hunters, hence the need for stealthy strikes. If you find piles of feathers on the lawn, these will most often be a result of Sparrowhawk strikes. You probably won’t notice it at the time, and only see the feathers some time later. These are, after all, the stealthiest of hunters.