Common breeding resident.

The Sparrowhawk is a very resilient bird. During the nineteenth century landowners and their gamekeepers tried to eradicate it along with other birds of prey. Having survived this persecution a worse fate befell it during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s when the effects of Organochlorine Pesticides used in Agriculture brought the species to the verge of extinction in southern and eastern England. Following the banning of these pesticides it began to increase in numbers again, and by the 1980’s was increasing dramatically.

Foster (1914) reported Sparrowhawks from Box Wood, and Humley Wood (Whomerley Wood).

Having only been recorded from Stevenage on eight occasions between 1965 and 1979, with records coming from, Box Wood, Claypits Spring, Fairlands Valley, Monks Wood, and Watery Grove, their numbers increased rapidly from 1980.

In 1984 they bred again in Box Wood, and since 1984 have re-colonised Watery Grove.

The 1992 Breeding Atlas confirmed breeding from five of the tetrads covering Stevenage but, worryingly from only one tetrad in the 2012 Breeding Atlas. 

The 2012 Winter Atlas confirmed their presence from all the tetrads covering Stevenage.

Two unusual records, one “successfully exploited” a Pheasant Feeder in Box Wood in 1980 and one was seen being mobbed by six Ring-necked Parakeets (Psittacula krameria) over the White Way on 12 January 2023.