Four or five pale blue, brown-spotted eggs are laid; the success of the breeding attempt is dependent on the female maintaining a high weight while the male brings her food.

The Eurasian sparrowhawk's hunting behaviour has brought it into conflict with humans for hundreds of years, particularly racing pigeon owners and people rearing poultry and gamebirds.

The species features in Teutonic mythology and is mentioned in works by writers including William Shakespeare, Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Ted Hughes.

[5] The Eurasian sparrowhawk was described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 landmark 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Falco nisus,[6] but moved to its present genus by French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.

[11] Within the species itself, six subspecies are generally recognised:[10][12] The Eurasian sparrowhawk is a small bird of prey with short, broad wings and a long tail, both adaptations to manoeuvring through trees.

[12] He has slate-grey upperparts (sometimes tending to bluish), with finely red-barred underparts, which can look plain orange from a distance; his irides are orange-yellow or orange-red.

[17] The increased proportion of medium-aged stands of trees created by modern forestry techniques have benefited Accipiter nisus, according to a Norwegian study.

[34] Unlike its larger relative the Eurasian Goshawk, it can be seen in gardens and in urban areas[35] and will even breed in city parks if they have a certain density of tall trees.

[39] It hunts by surprise attack, using hedges, tree-belts, copses, orchards and other cover near woodland areas; its choice of habitat is dictated by these requirements.

[15] Ian Newton describes seven modes of hunting used by Eurasian sparrowhawks:[40] The sparrowhawk bears numerous adaptations that allow it to fly at speed low to the ground and hunt in confined spaces;[41] these include its blunted wings, which allow it to fly through narrow gaps in hedges and fences, and its long, square-edged tail, which the bird uses to aid itself in carrying out tight turns, such as those required to negotiate close stands of trees.

Small mammals, including mice, bats, voles, squirrels, shrews, and young rabbits,[45][46] are sometimes caught but insects are eaten only very rarely.

[51] A 10-year study in Scotland showed that Eurasian sparrowhawks did not select the common redshanks they predated according to the waders' size or condition, probably because of the hawks' surprise-attack hunting technique.

[55] The Eurasian sparrowhawk breeds in well-grown, extensive areas of woodland, often coniferous or mixed, preferring forest with a structure neither too dense nor too open, to allow a choice of flight paths.

[15] During the breeding season, the adult male Eurasian sparrowhawk loses a small amount of weight while feeding his mate before she lays eggs, and also when the young are large and require more food.

[58] Though they receive the same amount of food, male chicks (roughly half the size of females) mature more quickly and seem to be ready to leave the nest sooner.

[59] In a study in the Forest of Ae, south-west Scotland, it was found that 21% of nestlings over two days old died, with the causes of death being starvation, wet weather, predation and desertion by the parents.

[60] The parasite Leucocytozoon toddi can be passed from parent to nestling at the nest, possibly because of the number of birds sharing a small space, thus allowing transmission.

[62] The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds bought its Coombes Valley nature reserve in Staffordshire because it was the only Eurasian sparrowhawk breeding site left in the English Midlands.

[65] In the UK, the use of cyclodienes as seed dressings for autumn-sown cereals was banned in 1975 and the levels of the chemicals present in the bird population began to fall.

[69] Body tissue samples from Eurasian sparrowhawks are still analysed as part of the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme conducted by the UK government's Joint Nature Conservation Committee.

"[73] It was written in 1870 that "The sparrowhawk is perhaps only the true enemy of the game-preserver; though at the same time it is probable that if the good and evil it does were justly weighed, the balance would be in favour of the hawk, its favourite quarry being the wood pigeon, which is now increasing to an extent injurious to agriculture.

[15] In the United Kingdom, research into the effect of predators on bird populations has been "a contentious issue", with "perceived conflict between the interests of nature conservationists and those involved in game shooting".

Declines in the populations of some British songbirds since the 1960s have coincided with considerable changes in agricultural practices and also large increases in the numbers of Eurasian sparrowhawks and European magpies.

In a 1949–1979 study of 13 passerine species breeding in a 40-acre (16-hectare) oakwood at Bookham Commons, Surrey, England, none was present in significantly greater numbers when Eurasian sparrowhawks were absent from the wood.

But analysis of long-term, large-scale national data from the UK's Common Bird Census demonstrated that the declines in farmland songbird populations since the 1960s are unlikely to have been caused by increased predation by Eurasian sparrowhawks and magpies.

[80] From January to April 2009,[81] the Scottish Government conducted a trial translocation of Eurasian sparrowhawks from around racing pigeon lofts in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Kilmarnock, Stirling and Dumfries.

"[81] Eurasian sparrowhawks are an effective urban adapter species in the UK and are thus non-threatened, however, recent search has suggested that they are prone to colliding with man-made structures such as buildings when hunting.

[93] Philip Glasier describes Eurasian sparrowhawks as "in many ways superior to hunting with a larger short-wing [hawk]" and "extremely hard to tame".

If a winter sparrowhawk prove good, she will kill the pye, the chough, the jay, woodcock, thrush, black-bird, fieldfare, and divers[e] other birds of the like nature.

T'was considered very ominous, and so it proved.The musket, or musquet, originally a kind of crossbow bolt,[65] and later a small cannon, was named after the male Eurasian sparrowhawk because of its size.