Dear Parrots magazine,
Sparrow hawk spooking cockatiels
On several occasions recently, first thing in the morning, I have been woken by the sound of my cockatiels flying around their aviary in a complete frenzy. When I spoke to my neighbour about it he told me that a sparrow hawk had been visiting his bird table and had been catching sparrows and carrying them off. My cockatiels can see the bird table from the flight and this was obviously what was upsetting them.
But, one morning I found the sparrow hawk hanging on the wire of the flight holding onto the foot of one very distressed cockatiel. I rushed outside and it flew off, but after that incident I have now double-wired the aviary so predators can no longer reach the birds inside.
K. Barratt, email