Name that bird of prey

[Jimny14]

Seen this little fella a couple of times briefly, always in the same place.
Here is a terrible photo.



My best guess is sparrow hawk but if anyone else has a better knowledge of these things please let me know what it is likely to be.

[MyWifesBrassicas]

looks like a sparrow hawk to me.
Always nice to see in the garden

[Jimny14]

I love seeing birds of prey about, but am also a bit conflicted when I see them as we feed the garden birds and his perch is about 15ft from our feeding spot. I know it's nature and predators have a place in the food chain but i also know I'm changing natural behaviour of all the birds by my feeding.

[Can the Man]

Looks like a sparrow hawk to me also

[Small pumpkin]

I’m also going with sparrow hawk

[Gillykat]

Female Sparrowhawk Awesome birds!

[Dynamite]

Wow, impressive Jimny

Kind Regards.............Rob

[Kirk]

Evidence is I had a visit from a female sparrowhawk a few days back. Nice circle of pigeon feathers on the ground under the cherry.

About a year back the female nailed a pigeon in the garden - pigeons seems a bit too big for the males, but have seen the female take one.

Just feathers, nothing else. Having seen the male eat its way through a green finch they seem to eat everything - maybe not the beak, but everything else seems to get eaten.

[Can the Man]

This sparrow hawk had just taken a pigeon on my Bog Lane

[Bubbles21]

looks like a sparrowhawk to me.

[carolefu]

Definitely, a sparrow hawk. But it's illegal to try & kill them. If anything, it'll keep away the pests & probably kill the weakest of the garden birds. Be careful when you put slug pellets down, as it's poisonous to whatever will eat the slugs, & in turn to the animal/bird that's at the top of it's food chain

[Jimny14]

Definitely, a sparrow hawk. But it's illegal to try & kill them. If anything, it'll keep away the pests & probably kill the weakest of the garden birds. Be careful when you put slug pellets down, as it's poisonous to whatever will eat the slugs, & in turn to the animal/bird that's at the top of it's food chain

Thanks for the information. I can reassure you I wish our little sparrow hawk no ill. I don't use slug pellets for a variety of reasons, including an inquisitive toddler around and about. It's lovely to see random rarities of wildlife around our garden and I like to keep some wilder areas for wildlife (I have to be a bit sneaky to ensure SWMBO thinks the garden still looks neat enough).

[Kirk]

My female sparrow hawk has been visiting a few times, managed a few pictures of her.
Keep finding a patch of feathers around the garden where she has had "lunch".

Get a lot of feathers off a pigeon. Only ever feathers, how she flies after snacking on a whole pigeon must be difficult.

Last time I saw her was because of the magpies making a racket, she had caught something small and it was lunch.