Saturday, September 5, 2015

The Sparrowhawk

A few days back, I saw this bird on top of the neem tree, chasing away the crows and that caught my attention. Looking through the camera lens, I found that it was the Indian sparrowhawk




Sometime back, I had chanced upon a shikra at the back of the house, sitting on the fence under the shade of the trees and bushes. As I remember, it was ash grey in its upper parts, with the eyes red as rubies, not much bigger than the pigeon. The sparrowhawk  is a bit bigger and more powerful. These pictures have the setting sun directly on its underparts, and its eyes, and the barring in the tail is also not very distinct, so this is probably a young adult. Soon it flew into the next tree and here it did actually look to be a juvenile :)


Difficult to spy amid the urban chaos that we inhabit of course, and the only reason they can still be seen are the small forested areas within Delhi that still exist valiantly. 

Like all beings created by nature, these are beautiful birds and I hope they continue to prosper and exist in harmony with the rest of us, mice and men!

6 comments:

  1. What a regal looking bird. You have captured it so beautifully with your lens. It occurs to me you might enjoy reading a book I loved recently : H is for Hawk: The Art of Training a Goshawk.....the review is at http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/04/h-is-for-hawk-review-helen-macdonald-taming-goshawk-mabel I found it fascinating. The author had recently lost her father, and so this book is also a meditation on grief and loss. She refers throughout to an expert on Goshawk, it is a treasure of a read for those of us who love birds.

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  2. Thanks for sharing these pictures, Soumyendu. The shikra is indeed a beautiful bird; the markings on the breast and throat are exquisite.
    I, too, hope this bird continues to survive in our increasingly urbanized world.
    I'll have to check out the "H is for Hawk" book.

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  3. Mr Rambler, last para I shall read 'Like all beings evolved in nature.....' . You post very nice indeed.

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