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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ChrisKten" data-source="post: 1586910" data-attributes="member: 69033">I've been debating whether to post this, and where. I thought it's something that's relevant, but I'm wary of giving the "cute and fluffy" club any more reasons to scare off Sparrowhawks.Anyway, I decided this thread doesn't get read much by those not interested in Raptors, so I'm posting it here.I've witnessed two main ways that Sparrowhawks kill, three if you count death caused by the impact of the strike on smaller birds. The most common way is to insert the talons deep into the prey, and basically wait until it stops squirming and start plucking. Sometimes it means moving the talons about to speed the process up a bit. The other way is to start plucking almost immediately while still keeping the talons deep inside the prey. This is mostly what happens to larger birds like Collard Doves and Pigeons. This is also how the juveniles kill most of the time.So I suppose that the first way is better than being eaten alive. But sometimes, including yesterday, there's a slightly different approach. One thing that you can't ignore is the screeching of a dying Starling. The screeching usually carries on for minutes, sometimes longer if the Sparrowhawk is a juvenile and is eating it alive. Lately I've noticed that the screeching has been over in seconds, and I couldn't work out why. Well, thanks to the pictures I took yesterday, I think I've worked it out.One of the male Sparrowhawks is still inserting his talons, but he's not waiting, and he's also not plucking. He goes straight into the brain through the eye sockets (that's the bit I was wary of posting). It sounds, and actually looks quite nasty, but it means the prey is being killed much quicker. It also means the Sparrowhawk can start his meal almost straight away.I have pictures of this just after it happened, but I don't think posting them is a good idea. I suppose I might be persuaded otherwise, but like I said, I'm very wary of posting pictures that might adversely affect birds that have a hard enough time as it is.</blockquote>

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