‘Though she be but little, she is fierce’

Scourge of the bird feeder and a master of ‘shock and awe’ assassinations, the sparrowhawk pursues its quarry with such tenacity and unpredictability that it often blindsides its prey

- Mark Cocker

READERS may be surprised to learn that, by weight, the male sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) is our smallest raptor. He can be a mere 4oz and is often dwarfed by his partner: the female sparrowhawk is on average 75% heavier than her mate. However, all sparrowhawks compensate for their lack of heft with a gift for startling unpredictability. Often the best indicator of their presence is a sudden hullabaloo among the local songbirds. Then comes the cause of the anxiety: a round-winged hawk bursting forth in classic fashion, flap-flap-glide, flap-flap-glide. In an instant, it surges away and vanishes.

The ornithologist Leslie Brown, known for his brilliant work in East Africa, suggested that the sparrowhawk gives an ‘impression of nervous tension unequalled by any other raptor’. It is, as a consequence, extremely difficult to observe well. Anyone lucky to have a prolonged view sees the lateral bars slashed across the pale underparts; in males, these are warm rusty brown and contrast beautifully with his bluegrey back. Even in moments of such intimacy, however, the aura of tightly wound energy is there in the bird’s fierce, yellow-eyed stare.