When raptors hunt in your backyard (well almost)!

A subadult Sparrow-hawk eating a Speckled Pigeon on the plot across the road from us..

Raptors are not new to us. We live at the edge of the small West Coast town, called Hopefield, and with fynbos and the river nearby we often see Jackal Buzzards flying around the edge of town, Yellow-billed Kites scanning urban life out of the air and for the past two years an African Harrier-hawk shows off her young ones every February. On a great day we hear the African Fish-eagles call from high above the river.

It is different however when you hope to see them hunt, let alone eat their prey. We don't get to witness much of that and when we do it often is at quite a distance.

About a week and a half ago my better half, Lizzy, called me early in the morning. She heard the flap of large wings in the beefwoods and then, right in front of her, on the open plot across the road, a subadult Black Sparrow-hawk (thank you Garret Skead for helping with the identification) landed with a Speckled Pigeon in its claws.

Not even 20 meters away from us, which was a great opportunity for me to get my camera and take a few pictures.

The kill was done within minutes.

The strategy is to sit, concealed, high up in a tree, wait for prey to come within striking distance and then swoop down on it.

Black Sparrow-hawk are some of the raptors that best adapted to urban landscapes and as suggested by the papers I read, this young one was well within its range of normal hunting terrain - open landscapes.

Even if it is an open plot.

What really surprised me, though, was how comfortable this bird was with us so close to it.

When I go out to photograph birds in nature I'm so aware of distance. Grey Herons and Common Moorhen are particularly skittish and will move away when you are as far as 50 meters away from it (on foot). Sometimes even further and I have to employ strategies like arriving before sunrise and hiding myself. There I would lay and wait for the sun to rise to get good shots. For some strange reason you do get closer when you are on a boat. Perhaps because you are seen as part of the boat and not a human walking around with something that a bird could mistake for a gun.

OK. I got a little sidetracked. Sorry.

Black sparrowhawks only occur in sub-Saharan Africa. They are forest birds and need tall trees for nesting (but they hunt in open areas) and around here they nest mainly in pine and eucalyptus trees and it is suggested that they became more urbanised, because their main source of food - pigeons and doves - moved to built up areas to benefit from the abundance of (human) food scraps, bird feeders and man made shelters they can nest in.

They are known to fly up to 12 kilometers with their prey, but this guy must have been really hungry.

As the excitement grew, the audience grew and soon our neighbours, our cats and our dogs were watching the spectacle from behind our fence. We kept our distance, but after a while the discomfort grew too much for this guy (or gal) and to my surprise it did not fly away with its prey.

They are known to fly as far as 12 kilometers with their prey.

Not this bird.

Perhaps it was very tired and very hungry.

All it did was hop a little further into the plot with its food in the claw. Once far enough, it just continued to rip apart the bird and enjoy its meal. When I approached Garret Skead to confirm the identity of the bird, he remarked on the tatty feathers around the head and thought it might be a mite infestation. It was a rainy day, thus inconclusive whether this is the case. Maybe it was just a case of wet head - this is my VERY uninformed opinion.

If there were mites however and it compromised the bird's health, it made a lot of sense why it was hastier to eat its food than to fly away with it. I was just THAT HUNGRY!

It did keep a close eye on us, though.

Urbanization isn't all it is made out to be. We enjoyed watching this beautiful young Black Sparrow-hawk and it was very happy to continue eating while keeping one eye on us.

Until the neighbour's cat appeared on the wall behind it...

Scared by the neighbour's cat the young Black Sparrow-hawk took off again and flew across the plot to the other side.

It took off.

This time to the other side of the plot where it could finish its meal.

Having adapted to a man-made environment does mean that the raptors now also have to put up with domestic animals, poisoning and even getting shot for stealing people's chickens.

All raptors enjoy legal protection, but it is an almost impossible task to enforce it.

A sad reality.

Once this little guy reaches adulthood, all the rufous (brownish) colour will be gone.

Most of its upper body will be black, with a white throat, breast and belly.

These are called "white morphs".

On the Cape Peninsula and further up the Cape West Coast another variety appears - the "black morph". When perched, these guys are black all over with just a few white spots on the chest or throat.

There is no noticeable difference between the plumage of mature females and males, which can only be distinguished by size - Females are larger than males.

They get up to 50cm in size with a wingspan of up to one meter. This one was quite big. Maybe it is a female.

Away from all disturbance this young bird could finish its meal in peace.

Earlier in 2020 I heard a Black Sparrow-hawk call from the eucalyptus trees. Something they only do during breeding season. This subadult Black Sparrow-hawk may be result of that call.

After it finished its meal, it quietly disappeared between the trees.

I hope that, come March, I'll hear another call from the trees.

Perhaps I'll see her even sooner.