- a relatively small feathered predator. Hawks nesting in Central and Southern Europe remain at home for the winter. Those who live on the northern edge of the continent fly to South Africa for the winter.

The unpretentious sparrowhawk finds refuge in the most different places. It can be found in valleys and high in the mountains (up to the upper border of the forest), but most often it settles down to live in groves and forest edges adjacent to fields, meadows, gardens and rural estates, choosing young coniferous stands for its nest. Sometimes hawks also settle in deciduous groves overgrown with shrubs along the edges of fields, as well as in vast city parks and forested areas.

Habitat. All of Europe except Iceland and the northern tip of Scandinavia, as well as Asia and North Africa.

Species: Sparrowhawk – Accipiter nisus.
Family: Accipitridae.
Order: Diurnal birds of prey.
Class: Birds.
Subphylum: Vertebrates.

Security.
Massive use of plant protection products in the 60s. led to a catastrophic decline in the number of sparrowhawks. After a ban on the use of the most toxic herbicides was introduced in Central Europe, the population of these predators has increased significantly. In some European countries, the sparrowhawk is protected by law.

Reproduction.
Sparrowhawks are among the birds that produce only one brood per year. The couple annually builds a new nest on a young tree, choosing a place where the branches grow together with the trunk. In the midst of mating games, the birds call to each other with a characteristic crying cry. At the end of April - beginning of May, the female lays 4-6 white eggs with brown spots. A few days before the first egg is laid, the male begins to feed his wife and diligently supplies her with food throughout the incubation period. The female only allows herself to leave the nest for a couple of minutes and goes to the “kitchen”, where she receives carefully plucked prey from the male. After 33-36 days, the eggs hatch into chicks covered with white down, which remain in the nest for about a month. All this time, the female is inseparably with the babies - warms them, covers them from the sun and rain, and in case of danger bravely protects them from the enemy. In the first days of the chicks' life, the father brings already plucked prey to the nest and gives it to the mother, who divides the offering and feeds the chicks. As soon as the babies grow up a little, the male begins to transfer the prey to his girlfriend in flight, without approaching the nest. If trouble happens to the mother during this period, the young will inevitably die of hunger, since the father will be able to get plenty of game, but will not be able to feed the chicks. Two weeks after the chick emerges, the female also flies out to hunt. From this moment on, the parents no longer tear the prey apart, but throw it entirely into the nest, leaving the chicks to deal with it on their own. On the 35th day, grown-up children fly up to their parents when they bring food.

Lifestyle.
The sparrowhawk's main prey is small birds: sparrows, finches, larks, titmice and thrushes, although female sparrowhawks sometimes attack pigeons. It is very difficult to see a predator in time, since it likes to attack from an ambush, but at the sight of an enemy, small birds immediately raise an alarming hubbub and rush in all directions. Having spotted the prey, the sparrowhawk breaks away from its sheltered perch and rushes towards the target in a low-level flight. In pursuit of prey, the hawk is agile and agile, as befits an air ace. An attack, as a rule, is fleeting, because maneuverable flight requires enormous energy expenditure. If the prey escapes the first strike, the hawk loses interest in it and again hides in the shelter, and if the hunt is successful, it takes the victim to a secluded corner, where, before eating, it methodically plucks it. The tendency to aerial “recklessness” often turns out to be disastrous for the sparrowhawk, especially during wintering in the city. Carried away by the chase, hawks often crash into wires or break into window panes. You can track a sparrowhawk in flight for only an insignificant fraction of a second.

Did you know?

• The sparrowhawk plays an important role in regulating urban and tree sparrow populations.
• In the past, there was a belief that the cuckoo turned into a hawk for the winter. Since all cuckoos fly to Africa for the winter, hawks wintering in Europe were often mistaken for cuckoos due to their similar coloration.
• Sometimes a hawk attacks birds in a cage standing on a windowsill, without seeing the window glass. Since the predator rushes into battle without looking back, such an attack often ends in its death.
• From 50 to 70% of young sparrowhawks die in the first year of life, becoming victims of winter frosts and injuries. Many become prey for large hawks.
• During incubation of the clutch, the female completely changes her plumage. Males, who have to feed the family, molt later and change their flight feathers gradually.

Sparrowhawk – Accipiter nisus.
Length: 30-40 cm.
Weight: 150-300 g.
Wingspan: 60-80 cm.
Number of eggs in a clutch: 4-6.
Incubation period: 33-36 days.
Diet: Mainly passerine birds.
Life expectancy: up to 15 years.

Structure.
Plumage. The ventral side is whitish with brown transverse stripes. An adult male has a bluish-gray back, with ocher stripes on the abdomen. The female's dorsal side is brown, and the stripes on the abdomen are darker.
Wings. The wings are rather short and wide, with rounded ends.
Eyes. The iris of the eyes is orange-yellow. Excellent vision allows the hawk to look out for prey from afar.
Tail. The tail is long, cut at a right angle.
Beak. The sharp yellow beak is hooked and well adapted for plucking and tearing the body of prey.
Paws. The tarsus of the long yellow legs are covered with feathers. The fingers are armed with sharp claws.

Related species.
Hawks belong to the accipitridae family. Buzzards, kites and vultures of the Old World (Europe, Asia and Africa), as well as eagles, harriers, ospreys and hawks. This is the largest family of raptors. There are 50 species of hawks living in forests and woodlands around the world.

Three years ago I moved from Moscow to the Lipetsk region. Instead of a metropolis, I was now surrounded by forest-steppe. What more could you ask for? I began to think about what kind of hunting bird and what kind of game I could hunt. I may be able to go to hunting farms in the neighboring Voronezh region, where paid pheasant hunts are held, but only once or twice a year. I can't afford more. Partridge hunting was banned. There are practically no hare, and you are allowed to kill only one per season. There are few ducks, and those that exist live on private ponds, which are usually not even allowed to approach. The number of corncrake has decreased greatly, it has almost disappeared. Rooks, hooded crows and jackdaws stay mainly in the centers of populated areas, where letting birds of prey on them can cause problems for yourself. There are quail, but in order to hunt them in the fall for just a month, you need to specially get a pointing dog. There are quite a lot of foxes that you can try to hunt with a golden eagle. But feeding the golden eagle is expensive. In addition, high fox numbers do not occur every year, and rabies outbreaks are common in the region. This means that only small birds, blackbirds, magpies and wood pigeons remained for hunting.

After analyzing and going through all the options, I settled on the sparrowhawk. Now that I am over fifty, I am returning to the bird of falcon with which I started as a child.

The benefits of hunting with a sparrowhawk

1. The sparrowhawk is the most common and accessible bird in the middle zone. Lives here all year round and nests.
2. The sparrowhawk is not a Red Book species, so it is possible to obtain permission to catch it.
3. The range of species on which the sparrowhawk can be set is greater than for any other bird of prey.
4. Sparrowhawks are easy to keep, easy to train, and require little feeding expenses.
5. Due to its starting jerk and unsurpassed catchability, the sparrowhawk is easy to hunt on foot, using a short approach. When hunting for it you run less than for any other bird of prey, and this becomes important with age.
6. To find a sparrowhawk, one bell is enough, and you can do without expensive telemetry.
7. If falconry causes damage to nature, then hunting with a sparrowhawk causes minimal damage.
8. Due to the commonness and availability of the sparrowhawk, you can not burden yourself with keeping it during the molting period, but hunt it during the season and release it. Do it the way they do it in Abkhazia. Sometimes it doesn't hurt to take a break from your falcon.

From the practice of hunting with a sparrowhawk

I also remembered how convenient it is to use the sparrowhawk because of its small size and quick adaptation to unfamiliar conditions. In 1987, I worked as a district game warden in the Lipetsk region. I lived in an apartment a hundred kilometers from Lipetsk. Every month I had to go to meetings with the regional hunting inspectorate. I took Sparrowhawk with me. I carried him on the bus, swaddled, stuffed in his bosom in the side inner pocket of his jacket. The bosses were loyal to my hobby, and when I was sitting at a meeting, the head of a sparrowhawk peeked out from behind my bosom. After the meeting I went outside. He took the sparrowhawk’s diaper off and sat it on his mitten, letting it sit. After that, walking through the nearest courtyards and finding a flock of pigeons, he let him loose on them. It was easy and quick to catch pigeons to feed sparrowhawks in this way. Nowadays, it will no longer be possible to let people off like that in public in the city. People have changed, morals have changed, and, most importantly, laws have changed. Most of all, I had to observe and work with sparrowhawks in my small homeland, in the south of the Lipetsk region, in the village of Khlevnoye and its environs. There it is the most common bird of prey.

I took the sparrowhawk’s diaper off and sat it on his mitten, letting him sit.

Sparrowhawk annual cycle

At the beginning of spring, while there is still a lot of snow and there is no spring migration, sparrowhawks stay near food bases, where there are concentrations of small birds: near elevators, barns, poultry farms, landfills, thickets of weeds, vegetable gardens and orchards - that is, in populated areas or nearby from them. There is almost nothing for them to catch in the forest, and they fly there only to spend the night in dense pine plantations.

When the snow begins to melt, sparrowhawks visit fields where sunflowers were planted in the summer. These fields are not plowed in the fall, and there are usually many voles in them. Water from melting snow floods the burrows, forcing voles to crawl out to the surface of the snow, where they are caught by sparrowhawks, along with rough-legged buzzards and gray shrikes. With the appearance of thawed patches in the fields, larks arrive. And sparrowhawks begin to catch them in the fields. They hunt by flying at speed across the field and grabbing a lark startled by their random appearance.

During the mass migration of small birds in spring, sparrowhawks follow them along migratory routes and hunt them. They catch birds both where they fly and where they stop to rest and feed. Usually these are floodplains, small forests, and slopes of ravines.

Already from mid-April, a sparrowhawk, most often an old male, becomes noticeable not far from the nesting site. In this place he begins to constantly hunt small birds.

I found sparrowhawk nests in the Lipetsk region only in young pine plantings. The easiest way to find a nest there is by simply combing suitable places. In Moscow and the Moscow region I also found it by combing, but in young plantings of spruce and larch trees. The most difficult thing was to look for nests in an old birch-pine forest with an undergrowth of young spruce trees.

Sparrowhawk nest

Sparrowhawks nest in one area year after year, as long as this area satisfies their requirements. But every year they build a new one near the old nest. Therefore, you usually find several nests on a nesting site. The sites I discovered ranged from one to five.

Sparrowhawk nests are located low, usually near the trunk, less often in its fork. Constructed from thin dry twigs, pine or other, depending on the surrounding tree stand, sparrowhawk nests are small, rather loose and flat. Sometimes they contain pieces of bark.

A residential nest on a site usually looks better than all the other non-residential ones. Often you can see the tail of the brooding female in it. The easiest and most reliable way to determine whether a nest is inhabited or not is to knock on the wood with the nest. When the disturbed female flies off, it is better to leave immediately, unless there is a need to climb in and see how many eggs are in the nest. The female will return to the nest quite quickly and continue to incubate the clutch.

The earliest egg laying in the south of the Lipetsk region, if we count that I observed the first flight on July 5, occurred approximately at the beginning of May. In Moscow and the Moscow region - two weeks later.

In the Lipetsk region, I found from three to five eggs in sparrowhawk nests, although literary sources indicate that there are up to six. The eggs are off-white with brownish-reddish specks and spots of varying sizes. These specks and specks on the white background of the eggs are located differently in different couples. For some - from the blunt end of the egg, for others - in the center, for others - throughout the entire egg. The egg sizes are approximately 3x4 centimeters. Only the female incubates the clutch for 32 days.

One of the male's duties is to guard the nest. Sparrowhawks usually live peacefully and unnoticed. Very rarely, a male attacks buzzards flying over the nest. The buzzard easily breaks away from the attacker, gliding along the slope on half-bent wings, if the terrain allows it to do so. Another responsibility of the male is to supply first the female, and then the whole family, with food until the chicks grow up and the female begins to hunt. The male brings the caught bird to the nesting site, calls the female from the nest and, when she flies up to him, gives her the prey. From the beginning of incubation, feathers from birds brought and plucked by sparrowhawks begin to appear on the nesting sites. By accidentally coming across these feathers and circling around the area, you can easily find the nest. But the male does not always immediately carry the caught unplucked bird to his nesting site. It happens that he plucks it away from the nest, in the place where he caught it, and carries it to the nest only after pecking it a little. Therefore, it is safer to start looking for a nest where at least two or three pinches catch your eye in a small area. But, as we know, there is no rule without exception, and it is quite possible that you can find a nest by encountering only one pinch.

Currently, the number of sparrowhawks during nesting time in the south of the Lipetsk region has decreased and is far from what it was in the first half of the nineties. In the early summer of 2008, I checked three nesting sites in pine plantings along a long ravine flowing into the Don. Sparrowhawks did not nest in any of these areas. In the early nineties, in the same area, approximately twelve kilometers away, I found six residential nests.

The main reasons for the decline in the number of sparrowhawks, in my opinion, are the proliferation of pine and stone martens, the growth of pine plantings and a general decrease in the number of small birds.

Martens destroy the nests of this hawk. About five years ago I checked the occupancy of a sparrowhawk nest. Under one lay feathers from the tail and wings of an incubating female. The nest itself was skewed. Having examined the feathers, I saw that they had been nibbled at the edges. It immediately became clear that one of the previous nights the marten attacked a female sitting on her eggs, grabbed her and ate her.

And goshawks begin to displace sparrowhawks as soon as young pine plantings grow up and they can easily fly over them. I don’t know whether they destroy nests or catch fledglings, but after goshawks begin to fly inside the grown-up plantings, sparrowhawks no longer nest in such plantings.

The number of small birds during nesting season has decreased, possibly due to a general decrease in groundwater levels and deterioration food base. In the forests and ravines along the left bank of the Don, numerous wells, springs, pits and other watering places have almost completely dried up. Due to droughts in summer, earthworms go deep into the ground. If there were no worms, there were no more starlings and colonies of field thrushes. But these are only obvious changes. Perhaps there are others, not so obvious, but significant, which also do not benefit nesting small birds and, along with them, sparrowhawks.

Fledglings of sparrowhawks begin to leave the nests from the beginning of July. The earliest departure I noted was July 5, which I already mentioned. In some pairs, the fledglings are quite noisy, especially in the morning and in the evening, while in others they rarely voice.

Young, if there is enough food on the site, after emergence, the brood stays on it longer than during the lack of food. And if there is not enough food on the site, then after five days the fledglings will no longer be found.

From mid-July, the fledglings, having left the nest and scattered, begin to hunt on their own at forest watering places, lying in wait for small birds arriving to drink water. In 2008, flocks of sparrowhawks were already hunting in vegetable gardens from August 6th. And on August 26, the first cold snap began, and on the 27th, sparrowhawks, kites, and bee-eaters began moving in a southwestern direction. It was already the beginning of the autumn migration.

In September, migrating sparrowhawks circling are clearly visible. At this time, you can often see young sparrowhawks playing with hooded crows or magpies. Once I saw a sparrowhawk chasing a goshawk over the garden, but why is not clear.

In September, migratory sparrowhawks circling are clearly visible

The peak passage in 2008 occurred on October 19. Sparrowhawks, goshawks and already rough-legged buzzards were doing well that day. But, it should be borne in mind that every year the autumn migration takes place differently.

The main wintering place for departed sparrowhawks, according to literary sources, is North Africa. Those that remain to winter with us are distributed among feeding areas, but not all settle in one place. Many winterers continue to migrate. At food bases, some sparrowhawks replace others. It seems that all winter they are moving towards warmer and more food-rich places.

In the Lipetsk region, on my garden plot in winter, I see sparrowhawks almost every day. Interestingly, during the entire winter of 2009-2010 I did not see a single old male. In autumn I saw more often young females, and in winter - young males and old females. In the years 1975-1990, males, old and young, predominated during the snowy period. What was this connected with? Don't know. Maybe it’s an accident, or maybe it’s due to climate change or a change in the main food supply of these birds.

What does the sparrowhawk hunt?

The sparrowhawk is a very agile and fast predator. In nature, its main prey is small birds. He catches them more often on the fly and is well adapted for this. The sparrowhawk has short wide wings, a long tail, long tarsus and long prehensile toes.

Males, perhaps due to their small size, catch only small birds. Females, larger and stronger, in addition to small birds, catch larger prey, sometimes in winter - even gray partridges.

In the nesting areas of sparrowhawks, in addition to feathers from small birds, I also found feathers from large spotted woodpeckers and blackbirds. In autumn and winter in the Lipetsk region, I often observed sparrowhawks attacking sparrows gathered in thorn bushes. At great speed, the hawk dived into dense thorny thickets and managed to fly out the other side with the caught sparrow. You're simply amazed at his agility.

The sparrowhawk knows well where small birds are fed in winter, and hunts them there. If the feeder is located in an open area, it attacks from afar at high speed. If among the trees, it attacks briefly, hiding behind the trees when approaching. The birds escape from it either by diving into the nearest very dense bush, if there is one, or vertical take-off into the crown of a tree. Vertical takeoff among sparrows, tits and other small birds is a very effective rescue technique, and they often use it.

In winter, the sparrowhawk does not wait long for small birds hidden in a reliable shelter - dense branches. Usually, after waiting a few minutes, he flies away.

When attacked by a sparrowhawk, large spotted woodpeckers hide behind tree trunks and scream loudly. This call seems to scare off sparrowhawks, but apparently not all of them.

In late autumn and winter, sparrowhawks dare to attack such unusual prey as domestic pigeons. The earliest attack on a pigeon in the village of Khlevnoye was noted by me on November 4. In the same area, in some years there are several attacks on pigeons, in others there are none at all. Although there is a general trend of increased attacks by sparrowhawks on pigeons, these attacks are still very rare.

The reasons for attacks on pigeons in different places, of course, are different.

It is possible that in the steppe regions of the Tambov region, some female sparrowhawks are accustomed to catching the gray partridge, which is numerous there, and they associate pigeons with partridges.
In Kyrgyzstan, they attack because they are hungry during a long flight over unusual, food-poor lands.

In the Lipetsk region there has been a sharp overall decline in wintering small granivorous birds. Due to the fact that local population Livestock has practically ceased to be kept and agricultural livestock breeding facilities have collapsed, the previously numerous sparrows and buntings have greatly decreased in number, and crested larks have almost disappeared. There are fewer burdock thickets, and in winter there are no longer those huge flocks of goldfinches. Instead of amaranth, the seeds of which fed flocks of siskins and redpolls in winter, now some Canadian weed that has spread from the south sticks out from under the snow in the gardens. And in the winter of 2009-2010, due to the poor harvest of mountain ash and thorns, there were almost no rowan thrushes left to spend the winter. Very few waxwings arrived for the winter. Although this is not related to the mountain ash, few redpolls and siskins arrived that winter either. And, probably, this lack of food pushed the female sparrowhawks to attack the pigeons.

Sparrowhawk: Males and females, old and young

Sparrowhawks are young and old, males and females generally differ well in color. To understand who you are holding in your hands, pay attention to the following.

Old male sparrowhawk
Its back is bluish-gray, of different shades, sometimes bluish. The front from the throat to the undertail is white with a rather bright reddish-brown transverse pattern. On the gray background of the tail feathers there are transverse dark stripes, but it happens that these stripes are absent on the two middle feathers.

Old female sparrowhawk
The color of the back is gray-gray or has a brownish tint, but is generally darker than that of old males. The front from the throat to the undertail is white with a gray-gray or gray-brown transverse pattern. On the gray background of all tail feathers there are dark transverse stripes.

Sparrowhawks young and old, males and females generally differ well in color (old male sparrowhawk)

Young male sparrowhawk
The back is brown with or without buffy edging of feathers. The front from the throat to the undertail is white with brown drop-shaped spots starting from the throat and crop, turning into heart-shaped spots on the chest, and on the belly - already into stripes.

Young female sparrowhawk
The back is brown with or without light edging of feathers. White “plaques” are common on the shoulders. The front from the throat to the undertail is white, but the transverse brown pattern of stripes begins immediately from the throat. Even young females have better defined light eyebrows, often extending to the back of the head.

Approximate weight of a sparrowhawk: male - 160-170 g, female - 250-300 g (young male sparrowhawk andyoung female sparrowhawk)

The tail feathers of young males and females are similar, light brown with dark brown transverse stripes. Sparrowhawks have yellow irises. The cere and paws are also yellow.

Sparrowhawk and Tuvik

Sometimes beginning falconers living in the southern regions confuse the sparrowhawk with the tyuvik. How to distinguish them? Tyuvik is a southern bird. The northern border of the range of the European tyuvik runs, as far as I know, along the Voronezh Nature Reserve and goes somewhat north along the Voronezh River. For the first time in Russia, the European tuvik as a species was found and described in those places. It is possible that it may be found somewhat further north. The main and most reliable difference between the tyuvik and the sparrowhawk, in my opinion, is its short fingers. The toes of sparrowhawks are thin, long, with well-developed pads. In Tyuvik they are much shorter and slightly thicker. This is immediately noticeable. Other differences of the tyuvik: reddish or cherry eyes, a black stripe along the throat and teardrop-shaped spots on the chest in young ones - may not work for a novice falconer. The nests that I saw within the joint range of the Tyuvik and Sparrowhawk were located differently. In sparrowhawks - in young artificial pine forests or wide plantings. In the Tyuviks - either in floodplain black alder forest, or in a narrow deciduous planting, but always near the water.

Approximate weight of a sparrowhawk: male - 160-170 g, female - 250-300 g. From this it is clear that the male is significantly inferior to the female in size and, naturally, in strength. Therefore, traditionally females are used for hunting. But you can train the male and let him attack small birds. The length of the wings in males is about 21 cm or slightly more. The length of the wings of the females that I measured was mainly 23.5-24 cm. 25 cm were very rare.

I have not identified any relationship between the size of the sparrowhawk and its color variation.

Currently, in Abkhazia they mainly hunt migratory quails in the fall with sparrowhawks. Similar hunts were not uncommon in Russia before, as can be learned from the stories of N.P. Danilova and S.T. Aksakova. Moreover, in addition to amateur hunting, there was also commercial hunting with sparrowhawk. The so-called prey hawks (or industrialists) used this bird of prey to harvest quails for sale.

N.P. was a true lover and connoisseur of the sparrowhawk. Danilov. It is very useful for beginning falconers, and not only beginners, to read his “Notes on the education of hawks and on hunting with a sparrowhawk.” I would like young falconers to chase less prestigious large falcons and pay attention to this small, but very brave, intelligent and, perhaps, the most catchy bird of prey. After all, objectively speaking, today it is the sparrowhawk that provides the most opportunities for real hunting in our conditions.

Kira Stoletova

The sparrowhawk is a bird of prey from the hawk family, distributed throughout almost the entire territory of the Eurasian continent.

Geographical distribution

A few decades ago, the population of sparrowhawks was declining due to the active introduction of agricultural pesticides into human activities and hunting of these birds. However, today, with the widespread ban on the use of pesticides and the exclusion of sparrowhawks from the number of birds harmful to humans and the economy and the cessation of hunting for the sparrowhawk, their numbers are gradually increasing today.

The habitat of the sparrowhawk is forests of temperate and subtropical zones, and not deep places, but open areas. They prefer coniferous and deciduous forests and can settle in mountains at an altitude of up to 2.5 km above sea level.

During migration from the cold European climate, sparrowhawks move towards the south-east of Asia or to the northern part of Africa. In Russia, sparrowhawks can be seen in the Ural River valley.

In total, the sparrowhawk family has 6 subspecies, each of which lives in different regions.

1. Partially birds of the first species (nisus) are distributed throughout European territory from the Asian west to the Siberian regions and in the region of Iran. These northern representatives migrate for the winter to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, in a north-eastern direction to Africa, as well as towards Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
2. The second subspecies (nisosimilis) is observed starting from the Siberian central and eastern regions up to Kamchatka and covering Japanese territory. It spreads from south to north across the Chinese area. The migration of these sparrowhawks is eastward to Asia, Korea and Japan. Some individuals fly to African countries.
3. The third subspecies (melaschistos) is recorded in the mountainous region of Afghanistan and the Himalayas, in the south of Tibet and in the west of China.
4. The fourth subspecies (wolterstorffi) is common in Corsica and is found in areas of Sardinia.
5. Representatives of the fifth subspecies (granti) are observed in the Canaries and towards the island of Madeira.
6. The sixth species (punicus) chose the African northwest and northern Sahara as its habitat.

Typical features

The small hawk is a half-size copy of the usual large hawk, and its description is similar to it both in plumage color and behavior. Small predators, both males and females, are dark gray in color, but in some individuals the color of the plumage often takes on a blue tint. From below, the body of the birds is decorated with pale gray stripes and shaded with red, which creates a deceptive external impression of the red color of the plumage.

The description of sparrowhawks indicates their small size. Adult male birds reach a length ranging from 30 to 35 cm with a wingspan of 60-65 cm.

Female sparrowhawks are twice the size of males, often exceeding the length by 25%.

Female sparrowhawks grow from 35 to 41 cm, and their wingspan length is up to 80 cm. The average weight of these birds is 185-345 g.

Short and wide wings along with a long tail help the birds maneuver between forest trees.

In both the younger generation and adult birds, a white spot of various shapes can often be seen in the back of the head.

The appearance of the sparrowhawk's tail allows one not to confuse the sparrowhawk with the goshawk, which it looks very similar to in appearance: the sparrowhawk's tail is longer, narrow at the base, and straight-cut at the end, without curves.

Behavioral features

As such, you cannot hear a voice from a sparrowhawk. It is only capable of making quick sounds like “kicks” repeated three times, which it does extremely rarely; often the voice is heard only when there is danger for the bird itself or its chicks.

Sparrowhawks' main prey for hunting includes small and medium-sized birds, including insectivores. Their diet includes quite a lot of tits, thrushes, and larks. Among their largest prey are pigeons. In addition to birds, hawks are capable of catching and feeding on small animals when hunting.

The prey of sparrowhawks living within city limits is often common sparrows, which is why they are often called sparrowhawks.

Among ornithologists, the hawk is distinguished by its ability to fiercely defend its nests and chicks from many predators larger than themselves. Moreover, when a person appears next to a tray with a chick, the female is able to rush at the troublemaker, flying around and attacking from behind, pecking right in the back of the head. At the same time, her attacks will be continuous until the alien dangerous to her leaves the location of the nest.

In fast and maneuverable flight, sparrowhawks alternate between flapping and gliding, and extremely rarely resort to soaring in the air.

If the sparrowhawk is not disturbed, then its nest for the next nesting year can be found in the same place or no further than 100-200 m from it. However, it will be completely new.

The material for the nest is coniferous branches, sometimes tree bark and dried grass are used without the use of fresh branches, which distinguishes these birds from other hawk species.

The nest of a sparrowhawk can be easily detected by the particles of prey they have left behind - the remains of birds that they ate themselves and fed the chick.

The female's brood consists of 3-4 chicks, sometimes up to 6. The eggs have a matte white shell, covered with ocher or brown spots of different sizes and shapes. The size of each egg varies between 3.7-4.3/3.0-3.3 cm.

The incubation period for sparrowhawks lasts about 30-32 days, and by the end of June or the beginning of July, chicks appear, which by the second half of August take wing.

It is believed that the generic name “hawks” is composed of two Proto-Slavic roots – “str” (speed) and “rebъ” (motley/pockmarked). Thus, the name of the bird reflects the variegated pattern of the chest plumage and the ability to quickly capture prey.

Description of the hawk

True hawks (Accipiter) are a genus of birds of prey from the hawk family (Accipitridae). They are not too large for daytime predators - even the largest representative of the genus, the goshawk, does not exceed 0.7 m in length and weighs about 1.5 kg. Another common species, the sparrowhawk, grows to only 0.3–0.4 m and weighs 0.4 kg.

Appearance

The appearance, like the anatomy of a hawk, is determined by the terrain and lifestyle. The predator has excellent vision, 8 times greater in acuity than humans. The hawk's brain receives a binocular (three-dimensional) image due to the special location of the eyes - not on the sides of the head, but somewhat closer to the beak.

The eyes of adult birds are yellow/yellow-orange, sometimes with a tinge of red or reddish-brown (tyuvik). In some species, the iris becomes slightly lighter with age. The hawk is armed with a strong hooked beak with a characteristic feature - the absence of a tooth on top of the beak.

This is interesting! The hawk hears perfectly, but distinguishes smells not so much with the nostrils, but... with the mouth. If you give a bird stale meat, it will most likely grab it with its beak, but then certainly throw it away.

The lower legs are usually feathered, but the toes and tarsus are not feathered. The legs are distinguished by powerful muscles. The wings are relatively short and blunt, the tail (wide and long) is usually rounded or straight cut. The color of the top of most species is darker than the bottom: these are gray or brown tones. The general light background of the lower part (white, yellowish or light ocher) is always diluted with transverse/longitudinal ripples.

Character and lifestyle

The hawk lives in the thicket of the forest and builds a nest in the highest tree in order to survey its hunting grounds, which cover an area of ​​approximately 100-150 km². This forest hunter deftly maneuvers in dense crowns, turning vertically/horizontally, suddenly stopping and taking off sharply, and also making unexpected attacks towards victims. The bird's compact body size and wing shape help in this.

A hawk, unlike an eagle, does not soar in the sky, looking for living creatures for a long time, but unexpectedly attacks any (running, standing or flying) object, lying in wait from an ambush. Having grabbed it, the predator squeezes it tightly with its paws and digs in with its claws, stabbing and suffocating at the same time. The hawk devours its prey whole, complete with fur/feathers and bones.

If a abrupt “ki-ki-ki” or a drawn-out “ki-i-i, ki-i-i” comes from the forest, then you heard the vocal part of a hawk. Much more melodic sounds, similar to the sound of a flute, are produced by song hawks. Once a year (usually after breeding), hawks, like all birds of prey, molt. Sometimes the molt drags on for a couple of years.

How long do hawks live?

Ornithologists are confident that wildlife hawks can live up to 12–17 years. In the forests of North America, hummingbirds like to settle under the nests of hawks, escaping from their natural enemies, squirrels and jays. Such fearlessness is easily explained - hawks hunt squirrels, but are completely indifferent to hummingbirds.

Classification, types

The genus of hawks includes 47 species, the most common of which is called Accepiter gentills, the goshawk. Birds of the Eastern Hemisphere fly to Asia for the winter, and birds of the Western Hemisphere fly to Mexico. The goshawk is prone to a sedentary lifestyle, but avoids settling in large forest areas. In flight, the bird exhibits a wave-like trajectory.

Accipiter nisus (sparrowhawk) is represented by six subspecies, ranging from Western Europe and North Africa east to the Pacific Ocean. The highest population density in Europe is observed in Russia and Scandinavia. Nests lined with leaves and soft moss are built on coniferous trees, most often on spruce trees. Every year the pair builds a new nest. The sparrowhawk is an excellent hunter, requiring a varied landscape with a wide variety of small birds.

This is interesting! In the Caucasus/Crimea, autumn quail hunting is popular with hunting hawks, which are caught, tamed and trained over several days. Once the hunting season is over, the sparrowhawks are released.

The sparrowhawk can be recognized by its prominent black plumage with transverse white lines on its belly.

Range, habitats

The genus Accipiter (true hawks) has taken root in all corners of the globe, excluding the Arctic. They are found almost throughout Eurasia, from the forest-tundra in the north to the southern points of the continent. Hawks have adapted to the climate of Africa and Australia, North and South America, the Philippines, Indonesia and Tasmania, as well as Ceylon, Madagascar and other islands.

Birds inhabit savannas, tropical jungles, deciduous and coniferous forests, plains and mountains. They prefer not to go deep into the thicket, choosing open light edges, coastal forests and woodlands. Selected species learned to live even in open landscapes. Hawks from temperate latitudes are adherents of sedentary behavior, and birds from northern regions fly to southern countries for the winter.

Diet of hawks

The greatest gastronomic interest for them are birds (medium and small), but if necessary, hawks eat small mammals, amphibians (toads and frogs), snakes, lizards, insects and fish. The predominant part of the menu consists of small birds (mostly from the passerine family):

• buntings, sparrows and lentils;
• finches,

Have you ever seen a flock of crows noisily and quickly chasing a small bird, no larger than the crows or jackdaws themselves? The bird that is trying to escape from its pursuers is a sparrowhawk. In autumn, when the hawks begin their migration period, their flocks can be quite large even within the city. You can recognize these birds by their slender and graceful figure, elongated tail, which extends back.

The hawk is not afraid of disturbances in a flock of birds, leaving them leisurely, often changing the flight vector, turning over in the air. Sometimes, even grabbing someone from those catching up, which causes some panic and chaos. The sparrowhawk usually feeds on small birds. Males, which are not particularly large in size, can catch goldfinches, kinglets, sparrows and other small birds, while larger females are content with pigeons, starlings, etc.

Hunting methods

As usual, the hawk plucks the caught prey, sometimes without even killing it, but if at that moment something disturbs it, the predator will leave the unfortunate victim. Usually this bird settles down with its prey on a small hill, and as a result, feathers, bones, beak, claws and a bird’s skull remain at the place of the meal.

When a hawk hunts for a variety of small animals and birds, it can sometimes become the victim of a larger and more dangerous predator. At night it is attacked by martens, and in the daytime by another species of hawk - the goshawk.

Features of behavior

This predator is quite cautious and silent. It flies freely and quietly between bushes and trees or right near the surface of the earth, near houses and buildings. Sometimes you can hear his short sharp cry of “ki-kik-ki”. When hawks begin their breeding season, they begin to scream more often. The sparrowhawk's visual acuity is excellent: its eyes are large, directed straight forward, and this allows for a greater breadth of vision.

For nesting, the hawk usually chooses forest edges, small groves, and forest belts. In mountainous places, it can build nests at an altitude of up to 2 km, but certainly in the forest zone. During cold periods and winter it can be found in parks or forest areas of the city. The hawk's habitat: the European part from England to Spain, the western part of Siberia, Central Asia, Africa, Crimea.

Nesting grounds

Sparrowhawks become ready to breed by the age of one year or a little earlier. Birds use nests once erected for several years. A pair may also have several nesting boxes, which can be used alternately in different times. The nest is a small, loose and slightly chaotic structure made of tree branches. The nest tray is quite deep, because the edges of the building are raised upward; the hawk constructs the lining from thin branches and tree needles. Often the nest is located in a spruce or pine fork, not so often - on aspen or birch trees, at a height of up to 8 meters.

The female and male work together to build the nest. The hawk lays eggs quite late, closer to the beginning of May. The clutch contains on average about 5-6 eggs, which have a matte white hue, covered with spots and specks of a dark brown color. If due to some factors the clutch dies, then the female is forced to lay future offspring again. Hatching takes a little more than one month.

Breeding offspring

The incubation process begins from the moment the first egg appears, therefore, all offspring are of different ages. They hatch into the world closer to the first half of July, and until the age of ten days, each chick needs heating. During this period, the female cannot hunt, so this responsibility is assigned to the male. If during the time the female warms the chicks she dies, then the hawk will still continue to bring food to the nest, but it does not know how to feed the offspring. Therefore, if small hawks already know how to tear meat and feed on their own, they survive; otherwise, they die.

As soon as the chicks’ thermoregulation process returns to normal, the female also begins to fly out of the nest to hunt. The offspring need a lot of food, as they need an energy source for proper development. Therefore, sparrowhawks try to catch as much prey as possible than during non-breeding times. At the same time, both the female and the male try to leave the nesting area for at least 5-6 kilometers.

Pre-migration period

A month later, when the chicks are already growing up, but do not have fully formed tail feathers and flight feathers, they can already crawl out of the nest and settle down in close proximity to it. Only at the age of five weeks do the chicks begin to learn to fly. Females develop faster than males. After another couple of weeks, the offspring are already flying away from their native nest, already able to pursue and catch prey. At the end of nesting, adults begin to molt: the process begins with the feathers located on the wings and ends with the covert feathers. The entire process takes on average two to three months. Towards the beginning of autumn, until October, birds living in the northern part begin migrating to southern countries. On average, during migration, a hawk can reach speeds of up to 40 kilometers per hour.

Interesting facts

Also, the sparrowhawk has poor taming ability, so they are almost never used to participate in falconry. The famous prose writer A. Green was once able to breed and tame a hawk chick, to which he gave the name Gul-Gul. The domesticated predator never managed to learn how to catch prey, so it died quite quickly after it was released into the wild. This chick became the prototype for the work “Touchable,” which was never completed, and in a story called “The Story of a Hawk.”

Video: Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus)