The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Sparrowhawk making a ham-fisted job of killing a male Blackbird about an hour ago. I think this is the juvenile that the resident pair on my housing estate produced last year.

It had a reasonable grip but the blackbird remained alive. The Sparrowhawk kept altering position and tearing out the feathers to get at the flesh but me and the parents could see the beak of the Blackbird still opening and closing, presumably to try and keep breathing or maybe it was retching or something. We could clearly see that the 'kill' had got a fairly large flesh wound and blood was coming from it.

Eventually, the Sparrowhawk flew off with the Blackbird in its claws, we think still holding on to life. It even got my younger brother (who is totally uninterested in birds) looking as well!