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Please can you identify Black and grey bird with red head and white bars underneath

Stacyl
18/04/2022 17:26

A bird between blackbird and pigeon in size. It has a red or pink head underneath shows white bars and longish tail. It's dive bombing my window bird feeder close to city centre in the northwest uk. Does anyone know what it is? It doesn't keep still long enough to photo!

  • 0 20/04/2022 21:35 in reply to Stacyl
    Don’t worry We were just waiting for you to get back to us. We are all more on Sparrowhawk. And Its more likely to be a Sparrowhawk than a Perigrine falcon Your not as likely to see a perigrine in the garden as you are a Sparrowhawk .
  • 0 20/04/2022 21:45
    Hey, I think of all the evidence points to it being a sparrowhawk and I think you could be right on it being a bit shadowed in the tree. But part of me still thinks it could be something else! I feel like 1 more sighting so I could take in some more details of it or it be still long enough for me to film/photograph! My hands shake when I get a bit excited and I'm likely to drop my phone before I open the app! And I'm actually rubbish at it too. The ones I posted were 1 photo of the 20 I'd taken! ;)
  • 0 20/04/2022 22:10 in reply to Stacyl
    There’s only one way to find out and Its defiantly worth a shot.
    Also If it’s moveing too much to photograph then just try to film it. If something is moveing too much for a photo, filming usually does the job. Also if it is a Soarrowhawk it would be hard to miss and either will do even if it’s not your best photo it can still help. even if it’s not today or tomorrow it’s still worth the wait. It can be exiteing and though your hands tend to shake Its defiantly worth it. you can do it. Good luck.
  • 0 20/04/2022 23:41
    Thank you, trust me I'm on high alert when I'm in my living room where the feeder is! The feeder was busy today which could mean the mystery bird is elsewhere. A crow was flying quite fast in a kamikaze pattern making a noise that I've never heard from them before but sounded like it was alerting or giving an alarm. It was really strange. And really really loud, even for a crow. It's better than watching TV sometimes!
  • 0 21/04/2022 15:41
    Thank you for your clarification, Zo. I think it's just been back but it was over even faster and I could just see a flurry of grey. It looked like it got a goldfinch though. And it's gone from a few different birds chirping to absolute silence and the birds were quite noticeable before. And the time of day is similar too 3.30pm today and 4,30 on Monday, I don't want to see another bird gets killed but I would like to see it again!
  • 0 21/04/2022 15:58 in reply to TeeJay

    I agree that the bird I saw looks like the one you posted Teejay except it had a plain tail. Similar in shape too. The colours and positioning on the head and body match with what I saw. I don't know where they normally live do they come into highly populous areas? There's very little greenery around here!