Unusual bird crashing into window incident

raykee76

I live in a housing estate in Laytown on the coast in Meath. I was sleeping late yesterday morning (sick day) so at 10.30am the blinds were still closed when I heard an almighty thud against the window. I jumped out of bed to see a large enough bird sitting & looking rather stunned on the windowsill. When is say large I mean in comparison to the usual crashers, starlings et al...

The bird had a slightly hooked beak, long tail, orange eyes (well my son swears they were orange, I'm not so sure, could've been dark coloured), mottled fawn & dark brown/black colouring and browny/grey feet, it sat there for a few minutes, then my son knocked on the window and about a minute later it flew away. we looked at a few pictures and it looks most like a hybrid of Pheasant, Sparrowhawk or Merlin except for it's dark coloured feet. Can anyone shed any light on what bird this could have been?

Thanks...

cuddlycavies

Female sparrowhawk took a bad turn whilst hunting.

fabhcungorm

Sounds like a Pheasant to me , she said it had browny/grey feet so I think that rules out a Sparrowhawk.