Week 53: Sparrowhawk ('Accipiter nisus')

The Sparrowhawk was @SpeciesofUK from 10^th to 16^th March, 2014.

The UK's sparrowhawk is also known the 'northern sparrowhawk' or 'Eurasian sparrowhawk' to distinguish it from other sparrowhawks.[1]

Sparrowhawk
[Flickr Creative Commons © Philippe Garcelon]

It is a small raptor with short rounded wings and long legs.

Week 1: Common Buzzard (Buteo Buteo)

The Common Buzzard was @SpeciesofUK from 2nd to 8th December 2012.

Common Buzzards are the UK's most widespread and common Bird of Prey.  They breed in every UK county.

Common Buzzard
[Source: Arend from Oosterhout, Netherlands]

Buzzard numbers are up dramatically since the 1960s, from 16,000 in 1966 to 70,000 now.¹ This is linked to rabbits gaining resistance to myxomatosis in the 1950s. They spread out from the hilly woodsides of the north and west of the country to the flatter south and east in the late twentieth century, as this infographic shows.