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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chosun Juan" data-source="post: 3590642" data-attributes="member: 92780">Wolfbirder,I once saw a documentary, Attenborough? "The Hunt" I think?  showing hunting and breeding behaviour of Eurasian Sparrowhawks. Of necessity this hunting was at different times. The male and female of the Eurasian Sparrowhawk exhibit some of the largest extremes of sexual dimorphism of all raptors. As I understood it, this was an evolved evolutionary response to enhance hunting and breeding success.Specifically in the deciduous forests of the northern hemisphere, at breeding times of year, the smaller male is adapted to hunt smaller prey in high availability at that time of year, more successfully amongst the denser foliage of that season, while the female sits on the nest, and then raises the young. When the leaves fall in the autumn, and the vegetation cover opens up over winter, is when the larger female comes into her own, able to fly through the larger gaps and hunt different, larger prey species more effectively that don't dwell in such dense cover. This adaption and behaviour is apparently a key survival mechanism.Based on this I would think it unusual to see the two sexes hunting together, although I have no direct observational history of your northern species, so it may be possible at some times of year. Certainly I've never seen our own Collared Sparrowhawks (which are similarly dimorphic)  in evergreen Australia hunting together, (nor Brown Goshawks either) though I spend far more time observing Eagles and Falcons ...... which I  have seen hunting co-operatively as male-female pairs many times, even in groups of 3 for Wedge-tailed Eagles ....Chosun    :gh:</blockquote>

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