"Killy, killy, killy, killy!" The unique call of the sparrow hawk (or kestrel) can be heard over field and pastures of much of North  America. As it makes it cry, this graceful raptor can hover nearly motionless in the air, displaying delicate white and brown stripesits underwing. The kestrel is the lightest and smallest of hawks, averaging only eleven inches long. It easily perches upon telephone wires to rest, while its heavier cousins  must content themselves with sitting atop sturdier telephone poles or fence posts. often nest in trees near farmhouses and at roadsides, earning them a reputation for "neighborliness.""Among the Wild Brambles," the sparrow hawk is in a characteristic pose. Havingits feathers, it takes its watch on a convenient branch within close rangeits prey, which is hiding somewhere in the dried grasses and blackberry brambles
below.