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Headline July 12 2007; a sparrowhawk today caught and killed a sparrow in the garden of Freesound user ERH. The sparrows in this garden, along with resident blackbirds , song thrushes, and wood pigeons, have previously been recorded and featured on this prestigious website. Now, alas, one sparrow died when a confirmed burderer in the form of the sparrowhawk pictured below swooped at around 6pm GMT. In less than twenty minutes it devoured the sparrow including head, legs, and innards leaving only a mess of bloody feathers and a beak while the brave blackbirds repeatedly tried to drive it off. ERH described the attack as cold blooded and wonderful. His girfriend was so distraught that she refused to comment.
http://upload9.postimage.org/259528/sparrowhawk31bjpeg2.jpg

wow, beautiful pic and story, thank you. Nature, red in tooth and claw!
Sorry for your girlfriend, just tell her the hawk was a female hunting for nestlings that await somewhere. She'll see the event under a completely different light

saludos

Cheers Dobbers old chap. Thanks for the reply.

Here's another couple of pics - one including the male blackbird which, with his mate kept attacking the hawk fearlessly. I cannot be 100% sure but I believe he is the same bird I recorded and posted on freesound some time ago. He is very aggressive around the garden and chases off starlings when they try to share the food I put out.

Err, Bram, I know it isn't flickr but these are freesound birds!
http://upload9.postimage.org/260930/sparrowhawkblackbird27.jpg
http://upload9.postimage.org/260941/sparrowhawk22bjpeg.jpg

now, as a born and bread on freesound I can only add this cruel comment:

for the love of god tell us you recorded it.

- bram

Cool carnage, I hope we will hear it :twisted:

Cruelty indeed Bram. Alas alas alas I confess that I reached for my camera first - I really wanted to get some pictures of this beautiful bird. My recorder stayed in its bag. I fear my freesounder pretensions are shot for good. Should I resign now?

To be fair, the sparrowhawk was silent and it was too far away to get the sound of crunching bones and ripping feathers so at first there was nothing to record. The blackbirds were attacking it and making a lot of noise with their alarm calls and I was torn between going for my recorder and trying to get a shot of them swooping on the hawk. I failed.

I put a lot of food out for the birds and my big fear is that the hawk will kill one of our resident Robin family.

Hehe, noticed your (new?) avatar... A cold blooded sound hunter? Diving down on innocent frequencies? Killing them with your relentless membranes? :wink:
Nice story, btw. I don't know sparrowfalks but I can imagine the scene and the furious blackbird. They attack even cats if they have to.

Yes the blackbirds went crazy - not scared at all.

That avatar? Well cold blooded just ain't me I just came across the pic when going through some old scans. It is from a stylised watercolour of a bird of prey which called a hobby which I painted in 1973! The interesting thing is the color of the paper which is quite a bright yellow although it was pure white when painted. I must have been using low grade paper which was not acid free and the disclouration is from the effects of acid over the years.

Here are a couple more of my old drawings which I may use as avatars.

http://upload9.postimage.org/334927/goshawkGIF2.jpg
http://upload9.postimage.org/335040/kestrel200PXL.gif