Sparrowhawks breed late, when young songbirds are most abundant
SPARROWHAWKS NEST RELATIVELY LATE compared to most birds of prey. Their breeding season is timed so that their chicks hatch in June, when woods and hedgerows are full of recently fledged songbirds such as tits and finches, which, being young and inexperienced, make easy pickings for the parent hawks.
It follows that sparrowhawk breeding success is closely tied to the fortunes of these species. As Benedict Macdonald observes in his book Cornerstones: “June is the month that decides whether sparrowhawk chicks live or die.”
In 2021, for example, according to British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) survey data, sparrowhawks appear to have had a poor year in the UK. The cold, wet spring is likely to have adversely affected the numbers of young tits and other woodland birds, hitting the sparrowhawks hard. Though often seen as a menace to songbirds, these raptors only do well when their prey does, too.
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Steve Backshall presents the sparrowhawk