If anyone’s interested, this is the sparrow hawk I saw outside my bedroom door eating whatever he has in his claws :)
September 4, 2024
Never seen somethin like this here before so it’s pretty cool.
by kodasai
10 comments
We have a family of magpies living nearby and I saw one seemingly chasing this guy and antagonising him, and as some commenters pointed out, the thing in his claws seems to be a wee bird, so maybe it’s a baby magpie. Not sure though.
“nature red in tooth and claw” indeed
Wonderful, you should post it in the r/Ukbirds sub.
Having had one on 2 separate occasions in our garden, we found out it was likely a female hawk doing the hunting. What was interesting was how all the garden birds went dead silent when she appeared. She took out a few crows and a wood pigeon over her visits.
They are lovely birds- watching them race through hedgerows after small birds is amazing- they are extremely agile in flight.
They will take food and can become quite friendly, but the exact ratio of weight to muscle is important for them to be able to catch prey, so if you start feeding them and get the diet even a bit wrong they won’t have enough muscle for their weight and will starve.
Great footage, thanks for sharing
Glasgow needs more of them to take out pigeons and gulls.
Kestrel maybe?
Did a science project on those birds back in elementary school.
We have peregrine falcons which are related. the grey on this hawk would be much darker on a peregrine. The hospital system here has funded the support to bring these magnificent birds back to our area. The pair’s nest box is atop the 18 floor clinic. The couple, Hattie and Orton fledged 3 healthy females this spring. They have definitely reduced the pigeon population downtown.
10 comments
We have a family of magpies living nearby and I saw one seemingly chasing this guy and antagonising him, and as some commenters pointed out, the thing in his claws seems to be a wee bird, so maybe it’s a baby magpie. Not sure though.
“nature red in tooth and claw” indeed
Wonderful, you should post it in the r/Ukbirds sub.
Having had one on 2 separate occasions in our garden, we found out it was likely a female hawk doing the hunting.
What was interesting was how all the garden birds went dead silent when she appeared. She took out a few crows and a wood pigeon over her visits.
They are lovely birds- watching them race through hedgerows after small birds is amazing- they are extremely agile in flight.
They will take food and can become quite friendly, but the exact ratio of weight to muscle is important for them to be able to catch prey, so if you start feeding them and get the diet even a bit wrong they won’t have enough muscle for their weight and will starve.
Great footage, thanks for sharing
Glasgow needs more of them to take out pigeons and gulls.
Kestrel maybe?
Did a science project on those birds back in elementary school.
We have peregrine falcons which are related. the grey on this hawk would be much darker on a peregrine. The hospital system here has funded the support to bring these magnificent birds back to our area. The pair’s nest box is atop the 18 floor clinic. The couple, Hattie and Orton fledged 3 healthy females this spring. They have definitely reduced the pigeon population downtown.
[Mayo Clinic Peregrine Program](https://history.mayoclinic.org/falcon-program/)