Country & Coast: Life and death struggle only feet from our window

The sudden appearance of a tiny brown bird as it dived into the middle of a dense garden bush produced strong drama when a sparrow hawk in close pursuit hurtled into the same shrub. We watched the attack unfold only feet from our window.

As the hawk tried to navigate its way through that impenetrable shrub, so the little brown bird remained motionless, seemingly secure in the knowledge it was safe. I was tempted to drive away the predator but realised that if I did, the victim would also leave the bush – and fly into the talons of the hawk. So I let nature take its course. The tiny bird, whatever it was, remained hidden and after a few minutes, the sparrow hawk abandoned its mission and flew away. It was some time before the little bird emerged.

It was a dunnock, otherwise known as hedge accentor or hedge sparrow, and this modest species is adept at hiding in thick foliage and among leaves and plants on the ground. Its colouring of brown and dull grey means it can explore garden verges and shrubberies without anyone or anything being aware of its presence, and it is surely one of our most unobtrusive of birds. Those few moments were a reminder that many people would refer to all small birds as sparrows when in fact they may be finches, members of the tit family, warblers or other small birds. In fact, the hedge sparrow is not a sparrow at all – it belongs to the accentor family and is a talented songster, being numerous in our parks, gardens and woodlands.

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There is no doubt the sparrow hawk is so named because it preys on small birds but I have no record of what percentage of its captives are truly sparrows.

We have two types of sparrow in this country – house sparrows and tree sparrows – and I am sure many become victims of this most capable of hunting birds.

The humble sparrow, however, does appear in our historic records. There are several references in the Bible while in this country the Venerable Bede (673-735) illustrated one of his talks by referring to a sparrow that flew into a hall in the midst of winter but immediately flew out again. It had escaped the worst of the weather for the merest of moments and Bede likened that instant to the life-span of humankind.

William Wordsworth used Bede's words in a poem, writing that "Man's life is like a sparrow". That same sparrow makes an appearance in the story of the pagan Coifi who spectacularly converted from paganism to Christianity at Goodmanham in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The question is whether those literary and historic birds were indeed sparrows. Like the sparrow hawk, some of us might not know or care what they were.

CW 6/11/10