Collared Sparrowhawk

SPARROWHAWK Accipiter cirrhocephalus

 

I watched a magpie being pursued by this sparrowhawk a few mornings ago. The bush is quite thick here, plenty of trees and scrubby undergrowth.

I say pursued, because whilst the sparrowhawk was chasing the magpie, neither the magpie nor the sparrowhawk seemed to be very excited by what was happening.
















The hawk appears to be a young bird. Perhaps it was still in a learner stage, it koew what it had to do but wasn't quite confident enough to do the job properly.

The magpie would alight on a tree and the hawk would land a little above the magpie and then just look at it.

The magpie would fly off to a neighbouring tree and the hawk would follow. What then? The hawk didn't know what to do.

Within a short time, both gave the game and flew off in opposite directions.