What is this bird?

[LittleOwlorNot]

Not sure if this is the right area to post so apologies if not.

Saw this bird in Hampshire today. Can anyone confirm what it is please?

Thank you!

It's a Sparrowhawk I think

I wondered that too but the pics I googled look different.

Red kite?

A kestrel?

try this www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/identify-a-bird/

Looks like a sparrow hawk to me as well, yellow legs - gorgeous but fearsome bird

Just googled again and actually it might be @AlfiesGirl Thank you!

@PlatinumBrunette I tried that earlier without much luck!

It's a sparrowhawk.

Think it’s a kestrel - in the second photo it seems to have dark marks under the eye (sparrowhawks have more of a ‘mask’), and shorter legs than a sparrowhawk

In the second photo it looks more like a peregrine falcon.

Merlin?

It's a sparrow hawk for sure. Looking for small birds your feeding in your garden sadly.

It is a Common Kestrel ( or Windhover, to give it its old country name)...

Wrong colour plumage for a Sparrowhawk and too small to be a Peregrine

It's a kestrel

I still think it might be a merlin. It looks quite small?

@CoisFarraige Do you know, it could be! Was about the same size ish of some pigeons nearby?

@rockingbird it wasn't in my garden thankfully but my parents have one who swipes their small birds in the Wye Valley.

I'm going to take a stab at a female kestrel

@Hedgesfullofbirds looking at images of Windhovers and it's markings (esp under the eye) do match. I didn't know about the name Windhover, I love that.

Common Kestrel - too big to be a Merlin, wrong colour plumage and Merlins are birds of upland heaths and moors.

Far too small and, again, wrong colour plumage for a Red Kite which are similar in size to Buzzards.

Male and female sparrow hawks look very different to each other which confused me when we had one visit our garden several times a few weeks ago, we saw her take down a woodpecker mid flight (it was flying down to our bird table poor bugger) incredible but sad!

@LittleOwlorNot, yup! Windhover is a brilliantly descriptive name for these delightful little birds which do hover on the breeze! Sadly no longer anywhere near as common as they once were and used to be a common sight hovering over motorway and roadside verges