Over the past 20 years they have bounced back from being critically endangered, and can now be seen all over the UK in towns and cities and mountainsides alike. They will hunt small mammals like rabbits, and are even perfectly happy eating earthworms. This is known as mantling.īuzzards are mainly scavengers and will readily eat carrion. They'll often eat their prey where they catch them, and will cover up their quarry with their wings to protect it from other predators.
Look for them in gardens and woodland, ambushing songbirds by flying low over hedges and bushes at speed. Females are about the size of a wood pigeon, and are grey and white in colour, with black bars down their breasts. They have a red-ish breast, with white bars, and a slate grey back. Males are known as muskets, and are about the size of a thrush, if not slightly bigger. Their tails are long and squared at the ends, giving them the skill and agility to manouvre tight corners. Sparrowhawks have short, blunted wings with their primary feathers creating 'fingers.' These short wings allow them to fly between trees and small spaces at speed. The females are much bigger than males, which effectively creates two different hunters in their area. Sparrowhawks are adapted to hunting in woodland, taking birds from blue tits to pigeons and everything in between. After sucessful conservation efforts, these birds are thriving now, and there could be as many as 40,000 pairs breeding in Britain. Sparrowhawks were almost extinct in the UK after centuries of persecution and pesticides which caused their eggs to break before they could hatch.
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