Windmill

[Slaphppy7]

Ah...the smallest of the raptors, if I'm not mistaken...

 

[Essjay]

Well, if you believe an old Royal Society for the Protection of Birds handbook of British birds -

Kestrel 38 cm
Merlin 27 cm
Hobby 33 cm
Sparrowhawk - 28 to 38 cm (females bigger than males)


We get sparrowhawks sitting on our fences and occasionally plucking their prey all over our lawn and they are surprisingly small birds. Smaller than woodpigeons and a lot smaller than crows, both of which frequent our garden. The woodpigeons eat all the bird seed in the back garden before the other birds have chance, and the crows rip up grass from the front lawn trying to find grubs etc.

I've only ever seen kestrels up in the air over the sides of roads looking for prey so it's hard to judge their size from that distance.