FOR three months residents in Rodbourne Cheney have attributed piles of feathers in their back gardens to stray cats preying on unsuspecting pigeons.

But this week Connie Henderson discovered that the animal terrorising the local pigeon population was in fact a sparrowhawk.

Eager to get to the bottom of the bird bloodbath, Connie kept watch out of her kitchen window, camera at the ready. She said: "I just saw a flurry of feathers and there was a bird of prey.

"I thought it would fly off before I managed to get a picture but it stayed there a long time. Needless to say there was nothing left of the pigeon."

Residents think the bird started hunting in the area in June when clumps of feathers started appearing. Connie said: "I'd go outside and see a pile here and a few scattered feathers there. I knew it wasn't my cats because they are all indoor animals but a lot of the neighbours started blaming their dogs.

"We have never had a problem with cats killing birds around here but we have had foxes in the garden in the past so I put it down to them."

There are around 34,000 sparrowhawks in the UK.

They generally live in woodland, along hedgerows and in parks.

Female sparrowhawks are more likely to hunt in open unsheltered areas than their male counterparts.

They mainly eat small birds and mammals, with pigeons and collared doves among their most common prey.

Connie's neighbour Stacey Cope said that she was surprised to hear about the hawk after blaming her dog Snoopy for attacking the birds.

She said: "I should have known Snoop wouldn't do it.

"He's not really energetic enough to catch a bird but I never thought we'd get a hawk around here."