BIRD OF PREY

[littlefish 602]

Firstly, sorry I don't have any photos but maybe if I describe what I seen this morning, some of you folks could help?

 

I was looking out my window this morning at about 9 am when a bird of prey landed on my fence about 15 ft from where i was. Now, to me this was a fabulous and fantastic sight. I had never seen a wild one up close before. I live in the centre of a town but round here there are areas of trees (with crows nesting) and people have shubs etc in their gardens and there are lots of small birds - sparrows, starlings, tits, finches etc about at the moment. It sat still for about 30 seconds and then flew off chasing a small bird that passed by.

 

It was maybe about 30 cm tall, no more. Its head and back was a blue/gray colour but the thing that I remember most clearly was that its throat/breast area was very orange/peach in colour. I've looked at google and i don't think it looked like a kestrel, in the pictures they seem to be a brown coloured bird, so i think that perhaps it may have been a sparrowhawk?

 

Now, another question - my next door neighbour has a pet rabbit that runs free in their garden, it is quite a big rabbit. Do you think that a bird like i described would be interested in tackling that pet rabbit or would it only be interested in small birds?

 

Does anyone have a photo of a sparrowhawk?

 

Thanks for your help.

[miles 227]

 

Musket (male) sparrowhawk.................. the rabbits quite safe..........................unless the Gos,s move in

[littlefish 602]

Thanks for that Miles - that looks pretty much like it. The bunny is still runnning free. Thinking realistically that rabbit is probably about six times as heavy as the rabbit!