I received this comment: –
Sparrowhawks do not like the colours yellow black and white.
I put a yellow high visibility jacket on one of my hens following a failed attempt to take her – touch wood seems to be working along with scary eyes on the shed roof.
Refective items made no difference s.h. took my only remaining fantail dove. Trial and error!
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Hello Paula, I’m so pleased you have tested this with trial and error. It is the only way isn’t it?
Yellow, Black and White. Interesting. What a lovely idea to put a yellow high visibility jacket on one of your hens. I can imagine it strutting around.
Scary eyes on the shed roof as well. Brilliant, but I am sad that you lost your last fantail dove to a Sparrowhawk. Where your other fantail doves taken by sparrowhawks as well.
I’ll put this as an article on Bird Table News. I could help other readers as I know how difficult it is to feed birds when sparrowhawks are around and how many garden birds get killed by sparrowhawks.