• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Shop
    • Gift Vouchers
    • Binoculars and Scopes
    • View Cart
    • Your Account
      • edit-account
      • edit-address
      • lost-password
  • Wildlife Tours
    • Discover Wildlife Weekends
    • Guided Wildlife and Birding Walks
    • Custom Wildlife and Birding Tours
  • Schools
  • Books
  • News
    • Irish Wildlife News
    • International Wildlife News
    • Wildlife Events
    • Wildlife Press Releases
  • Articles
    • Blog
      • Birding
      • Wildlife Photography
      • Whales and Dolphins
      • Mammals
      • Wildlife Podcasts
        • The Calendar Road
      • Biodiversity
      • Wildlife Calendar
    • Species Profiles
      • Amphibians
      • Birds
      • Fish
      • Fungi
      • Invertebrates
      • Mammals
      • Plants
      • Reptiles
    • Feature Articles
      • Choosing Binoculars
      • Birding for Beginners
      • How to watch whales and dolphins
      • How to watch Basking Sharks
      • Wildlife travel
    • Wildlife Portfolio
    • Wild Wide Web
    • Reviews
      • Book Reviews
      • Gear Reviews
        • Wildlife Optics
          • Binocular Reviews
          • Spotting Scope Reviews
        • Wildlife Clothing
        • Wildlife Accessories
  • Work with us
    • Write for us
    • Advertise with us
    • Sponsorship Opportunities
    • Wildlife Marketing Services
  • About
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Disclosure Statement
    • Cookie policy (EU)
  • Contact

Ireland's Wildlife

Irish wildlife, nature and biodiversity

You are here: Home / Wild Blog / Birding / Sparrowhawk: the “Ronseal” of Irish birds!

Sparrowhawk: the “Ronseal” of Irish birds!

June 11, 2012 by Calvin Jones 8 Comments

Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus), Male, West Cork, Ireland

Living and working in the country is often quite tranquil, but this morning the calm was shattered when this male sparrowhawk dropped in for an impromptu visit.

Suddenly the background harmony of birdsong was replaced by a cacophony of anxious alarm calls as blackbirds, swallows, house sparrows, chaffinches and tits all screamed their warnings. Trouble had arrived!

Sprawk2I glanced up from my keyboard to see this chap perched outside my office. What a bird!

The male sparrowhawk is a consummate compact killing machine. Not much bigger than a mistle thrush everything about it screams of pent up power and deadly potential. It’s fierce countenance, the piercing yellow eyes, needle-sharp talons and poised alertness deliver a package that really is the “Ronseal” of Irish bird world. The sparrowhawk, perhaps more than any other Irish bird, does exactly what it says on the tin!

Explanation for overseas readers: Ronseal is a well known outdoor wood treatment / stain brand. Their long-running advertising slogan “Ronseal: it does exactly what it says on the tin” is well known throughout Ireland and Britain.

Filed Under: Birding, Featured, Garden Wildlife, Wildlife Photography Tagged With: garden birds, garden wildlife, raptors, sparrowhawk

About Calvin Jones

Calvin Jones is a freelance writer, author, birder and lifelong wildlife enthusiast. He is founder and editor of IrelandsWildlife.com and founder and wildlife guide of Ireland's Wildlife Tours offering wildlife and birding holidays on Ireland's south coast.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Janet Mc Evoy says

    June 13, 2012 at 17:36

    I love your description about the Sparrowhawk.We have one visit the bird table, they all scatter,trying to hide in the hydranga,sometimes it’s got a fellow bird, but that’s nature.

    Reply
    • Calvin says

      June 14, 2012 at 09:54

      Thanks for the comment Janet. I heard the commotion outside, looked up from my keyboard and there he was in all his fierce glory looking right at me. Fantastic bird.

      Reply
  2. maria hanrahan says

    June 15, 2012 at 13:06

    I’m in east Galway. for a few weeks we had some young rabbits resident in our garden. one day my son and i were watching the rabbits clean themselves. out of nowhere a male sparrowhawk dived down on them.he took one rabbit on that turn and we suspect he returned later for the other as it was gone that evening. it was over in seconds but i’m so happy that we were so lucky to see nature at work. i’ll prob never be lucky enough to see that again. i feel priviliged.

    Reply
    • Calvin says

      June 20, 2012 at 00:09

      Lucky indeed Maria… it must have been an amazing thing to witness. Unusual too. Sparrowhawks tend to be small bird specialists and rarely hunt small mammals. I’ve never heard of one tackling a rabbit before… even a baby one. Thanks for sharing your experience.

      Reply
  3. carmel casey says

    November 19, 2012 at 15:23

    I absolutely hate them. I am plauged by them, one got so many birds from my garden that I felt like his local surermarket. They do every thing you said. This guy done the quick over the hedge bit and the hiding in the garden bit.
    And now there is another one . So now I’m in the process of making my garden once again anti-sparrowhawk.
    Nature is a savage, savage thing and the only thing to recommend it is the visual. It looks spectacular.

    Reply
    • Calvin Jones says

      November 19, 2012 at 15:38

      Thanks for the comment carmel.

      Sparrowhawks kill birds… it’s what they do. They do not, however, have a significant detrimental impact on small bird populations — not according to the science anyway — nor are they in any way cruel or malicious — they just need to eat, much as you or I do… or indeed its unfortunate victims.

      The simple truth is that if you encourage a super-abundance of small birds by offering a ready supply of food, then you’ll naturally attract predators. I’m not suggesting you stop feeding the birds… far from it. Feeding the birds is a good thing, and you help far more to survive even if the occasional unlucky few are taken by a sparrowhawk.

      Sparrowhawks are natural Irish predators, and small bird populations have evolved to deal with the predation pressures exerted by them. Far more damaging are domestic cats, which thanks to us occur in far greater densities than nature could possibly support, and which can cause all sorts of problems for our native wildlife.

      Reply
  4. Nicola Colohan says

    February 21, 2014 at 10:53

    I came to this site as I saw a sparrowhalk for the first time on my bird table. I live in the Gortarowey area of Drumcliffe in Co.Sligo right under Benbulben mountain and I have often seen them wheeling around over the mountain when walking my dog but it was such a delight and a surprise to see one so up close. My first time ever! I don’t think the little garden birds shared my enthusiasm though as they scattered as soon as they saw him!

    Reply
  5. Mary o neill says

    June 28, 2019 at 23:07

    We have birds of prey in our back garden and we would really like them to stay there long term! Any suggestions on how to make our garden more attractive for them??

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Search the site

  • Microthemer - Visual editor for your WordPress site

Subscribe to the mailing list








Supporting Ireland’s Wildlife

  • Microthemer - Visual editor for your WordPress site

*****

Footer

Experience Ireland’s Wildlife for yourself

Breaching humpback whale Ireland

Join us on a wildlife adventure on Ireland’s Wild South Coast… and find out first hand why we call this Europe’s Undiscovered Wildlife Frontier.

Find out more…

Ireland's Wildlife runs on the Genesis Framework from StudioPress · Hosted with InterServer

Recent Additions

  • Beneficial Garden Insects and How to Attract Them to Your Garden
  • Cuckoo spit/spittlebug foam on plants is harmless. Please leave it alone.
  • Purple Heron: an epic end to our spring Discover Wildlife Weekend
  • Free shore-based whale watching events to mark National Biodiversity Week
  • Competiton: win a border full of wildlife-friendly plants this spring
  • Woodstone® Seville 28mm Nest box Review
  • CJ Wildlife Free Delivery Weekend Plus Feeder and Food Giveaway
  • 9 top tips for feeding your garden birds

Tags

audio binoculars biodiversity birding birds Birdwatch Ireland books cetaceans citizen science CJ Wildlife competition conservation Cork fin whale full size binoculars garden birds garden wildlife Golden Eagle Trust Hawke Highly Recommended humpback whale Ireland IWDG Kerry national biodiversity data centre npws optics photography raptors reintroduction review reviews spring stranding Vanguard west cork whales whales and dolphins whalewatching whale watching white tailed eagle Wildlife wildlife crime wildlife photography wildlife podcasts

Take it from the top....

Copyright © 2022 Ireland's Wildlife · Site Design by West Cork Websites · Content by CJ Writing

Manage Cookie Consent
Like most sites, Ireland's Wildlife uses cookies to improve functionality, enhance your user experience and to gauge the popularity of our content.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}