Observations at the bird’s feeder: hawks

Eurasian sparrowhawks (Accipiter nisus) continue to visit the bird’s feeder.

When I was taking pictures from the hidden point, sparrows and tits sometimes were rapidly flying away and calming down for a while. But it took me a while to understand the cause of the commotion.

But on January 16, I watched a hawk attack the feeder, while me and three other birders were nearby, a few meters away. I managed to make three shots with the bird of prey. Two days later I looked out of the window in the morning: three jays (Garrulus glandarius) were sitting on the top of an apple tree, looking down and shouting angrily, short and sharp, heart-rending. I looked closely – yes, there was a new “twig” in the middle of the tree.

Red-orange chest turned to me, a medium-sized sparrowhawk, an adult male. It's about ten meters away, which should have been great for taking a photo. I approached the window quietly, and began to open the window very smoothly. But the hawk got anxious, and immediately flew away; I did not have time to make a good shot.

And two days ago, I went out into the yard, and I heard a jay calling from the apple trees at the end of the garden; all cries were from the same place. I came up quietly and so what I was expecting to see!

The sparrowhawk was sitting on the same branch where I shot it 16 times. I went home, set up the camera, left the house, and came up – the visitor was still sitting! It was a young bird rather large for a sparrowhawk: probably a female.

The predator was posing for a minute, then flew deeper into the bushes.

Translated by M. Shaturin