We have between 20 and 50 birds coming to our various feeders every day- fantastic to watch, but this number has attracted a sparrow hawk, who now comes every day to grab its own meal. This has included chaffinches, gold finches, three kinds of tit, doves.... Infact, basically anything except the wood pigeons I would be happy for it to kill and drag off. We have now moved the feeders to different parts of the garden, under trees, etc. The sparrowhawk now just makes a circuit of each area, flying right into the bushes and branches to grab its prey. Please can anyone advise what we should do?
Gardener said: We have between 20 and 50 birds coming to our various feeders every day- fantastic to watch, but this number has attracted a sparrow hawk, who now comes every day to grab its own meal. This has included chaffinches, gold finches, three kinds of tit, doves.... Infact, basically anything except the wood pigeons I would be happy for it to kill and drag off. We have now moved the feeders to different parts of the garden, under trees, etc. The sparrowhawk now just makes a circuit of each area, flying right into the bushes and branches to grab its prey. Please can anyone advise what we should do?
I know exactly how you feel, gardener! I had a male Sparrowhawk appear for the first time in my garden yesterday (well, the first time I have seen him, anyway!) and it gave me the fright of my life because instead of appreciating what a wonderful BOP he is, my first thought went out to the little fellows I feed on a daily basis.
With that in mind, I've moved my feeding station and put it right in a big bush, which is next to a tree. I have had to do some pruning in order for it to fit but have left plenty of shelter should he come back. As much as I appreciate the Sparrowhawk has to eat, I would prefer it if he didn't do it in my garden (we live in a heavily wooded area so he has plenty of other places to hunt! lol). Good luck with your Sparrowhawk, there seem to be an awful lot of sightings on here just lately.
My name is VeggieBirdLover and I am a bird feeding addict :D
Hi Gardener .Unfortunately I have become an expert on sparrowhawks ! Like you I have had a terrible time with them targeting my garden birds .I keep my main nut feeders in a netted hedge of 3 inch sq nylon .This has been a great help .Also Ive a Garden eye balloon but that doesn't seem to deter the hawks too much .I think tall bamboo sticks in the flight path of a potential attack are a great help to the targeted birds .I hope this helps .The less sparrow hawks the better from my point of view .Although cats are probably a much worse predator .
I had same ‘problem’ or ‘experience’ and have fitted the attached which stops the sparrowhawk taking feeding birds. In flight they are fair game but I felt I was creating a feeding station for the sparrowhawk with 3 known kills in the time I was watching.
Regards,
Ian.
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Realistically, hawks catch the birds while they aren't behind the wire/mesh (as referred to by 'Feed the birds'). I personally wouldn't want to be viewing wire, but I can see why others wouldn't want to be seeing hawks catching blue tits.
A few years ago, we bought a bungalow with a garden that was just laid to lawn and a stone patio. We have slowly built up the garden to a wildlife haven, adding lots of trees, shrubs, a pond, bird feeding stations in various places and now get a good variety of birds visiting. We've had blackbirds, blue tits and robins nesting and raising babies. We get finches, tits, a good group of sparrows etc... and yes you've guessed it - the sparrowhawk. (We had a buzzard in the garden once!!!) Being disabled, my main pleasure is to watch our birds in the garden, so I am upset when nearly every day a bird or two is taken by the hawk. I know they need to feed, but it feels like a futile task trying to help the dwindling population of sparrows and other birds increase for them only to be taken as a tasty snack for the hawk. I too would like to deter the sparrowhawk. I live in a national park so surely there are better 'restaurants' in the wild rather than eating in my garden!
SamanthaS1882799170 said:I too would like to deter the sparrowhawk. I live in a national park so surely there are better 'restaurants' in the wild rather than eating in my garden!
Actually there will not be any "better" restaurants around. By using feeders you are attracting a large number of birds to a single point rather than the birds foraging in ones and twos over a wider area. This in itself is what is attracting the Sparrowhawk to an area where it is likely to have a much higher hit rate because of the concentration of prey - so in fact you are encouraging the behaviour and helping the Sparrowhawk more than the local bird population even though it may not be what you wished for. Removing your feeders for a week or two may well cause the Sparrowhawk to stop visiting for a while but I suspect that once you restart feeding then the Sparrowhawk will reappear. Remember that the Sparrowhawk will also be feeding a family at this time of year so will require more kills - so not feeding the birds through the summer months will reduce the number of kills in your garden. Once breeding season is over it will only need to kill to feed itself.