Becoming a regular visitor to RSPB Fairburn Ings, The Sparrowhawk has quite short wings. The males are a blueish grey colour on their upperparts wheras the female birds are brown. The male birds tend to be smaller than the females. Both birds have distinctive light coloured breasts with horizontal barring and a long square tail. They have quite piercing yellow eyes and a hooked grey coloured bill.

They are quite stunning fliers, often seen soaring in the sky, the next minute diving at speed, swooping down hoping to flush out small birds.

Their numbers are very much controled by the size of the small bird population. The larger female Sparrowhawk can catch prey the size of Woodpidgeon wheras the male birds struggle with anything bigger than a Blue Tit. I have watched and been privvy to several raiding parties by Sparrowhawk, They are extremely nimble and agile flyers, swooping in on their prey hoping to catch them unawares. When the hawks are in the area the smaller finches can sense danger is around and stay well hidden and silent in the undergrowth, it is quite an uneasy calm until the bird has made a kill or gone elsewhere.