Eurasian Sparrowhawk

Voice

A rapid, sharp chattering kek-kek-kek-kek near the nest, mainly from April to July and usually the only time you hear the species at all. Females and fledged young add a plaintive peee-oo in summer; in winter it is silent.

Identification

Short, broad rounded wings, a long tail with four or five bars and a square tip, a small head and long thin yellow legs. Flight is a burst of fast beats then a glide. The male is small, slate-grey above with rufous cheeks, orange barring below and an orange-red eye. The female is much larger and brown-grey, with a white supercilium, grey barring and a yellow eye.

Confusion species

Goshawk is far bulkier, deep-chested, with a strongly projecting head, bulging secondaries and slower, deeper beats; in display it flashes fluffy white undertail coverts. A big female Sparrowhawk against a small male Goshawk is the classic trap. Cuckoo looks deceptively similar, but has pointed wings that stay below the body, a small bill, and it never soars.

Habitat

Woods and copses with dense conifers for nesting, but hunting along every line in the landscape: hedgebanks, tree-lined lanes, gardens and parks. In towns it belongs to the bird table, where sparrows, finches and doves are the prey.

Range and movements

Breeds throughout Europe. In the Netherlands common and present all year, right into city suburbs; in October Scandinavian birds stream along the dunes and past watchpoints. In Spain it is resident in wooded hills and mountains, joined in winter by birds from central Europe.

• Resident
• Breeding (summer)
• Winter
• Passage
• Migration direction
• dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

Where and when to look

Late winter and March, on sunny mornings, when pairs circle high over the wood with white undertail coverts fanned. In winter the garden is the best hide: watch for the moment every bird falls silent at once, because he is already on the way. Coastal passage peaks in October.

Conservation status

Strongly recovered after the mid-twentieth-century crash caused by organochlorine pesticides, and now a common breeder. Local declines are reported, probably linked to fewer songbirds and more Goshawks. Window collisions and illegal persecution around pigeon lofts remain regular causes of death.