A few weeks ago Rohan and I watched an extraordinary confrontation between a cat and a sparrow. It happened in our tiny back garden in Richmond while we were sitting in our conservatory-cum-dining room from where very little bird activity is missed. To our delight, and against the odds, it was the sparrow who won.  

Over the years Rohan and I have become increasingly interested in birds. Nothing ‘professional’, so in Richmond it is simply a matter of watching who flies in and out of the garden and sometimes who sets up home. In May it was all very busy and in any hour we might well play host to blue tits, robins, goldfinches and sparrows. 

On the morning of the clash, the life in the garden was dominated by a gang of sparrows who hogged a feeder and who chirped and chirruped loudly when they squabbled – a sparrow pastime! It was against this background that the atmosphere suddenly changed. An adult male sparrow had flown up to perch on the top of the trellis just in front of us (see first illustration) and once there began to shriek out his alarm calls. The response was immediate, the garden fell silent as all the birds, save for him, took cover.

From now on and for the next fifteen minutes or so the sentry sparrow stood in one spot and repeated his calls every five seconds at an amplitude that required an enormous effort. A sparrow’s everyday chirps are made almost effortlessly; now, for each call his chest swelled and the call was coughed out. 

From where we sat neither of us could see what was making the sentry so alarmed and I assumed there might be a magpie lurking overhead out of our sight. At this time of year some of our garden sparrows would have been nesting and for a magpie a fledgling would make the tastiest of snacks! Then all was revealed – after the first fourteen minutes of alarm calls, the leaves fifty centimetres or so below the sentry began to part and from out of the shadows appeared the piercing green eyes of a neighbourhood cat (see second illustration).

Because she is jet black, till that moment she had been unseen at least by us, but obviously not by the sentry and how right he was! Piecing the evidence together, a few weeks earlier this self-same cat had ransacked a robin’s nest that we had watched being built and had left behind one dead fledgeling and one abandoned egg. The sparrow’s alarm calls were fully justified! 

The geography of our Richmond garden is important. With the trellising on one side and foliage on the other, the top of the back wall is an animal highway that, thanks to the same arrangement in the gardens of our neighbours on either side, runs for around around thirty metres and links two roads. The highway is a well-used short cut and in recent months not only have we seen the black cat walking past, but also squirrels, mice and the occasional fox. On the day of the spat the cat had slipped in unannounced.

After her long stare the final denouement followed. With the sentry sparrow still shouting with all his might, the cat slowly turned round and began to walk back towards a neighbour’s garden. As she did so the sparrow hopped along the top of the trellis and essentially ‘ushered’ her off the premises. Once the cat had left, the sparrow’s alarm calls stopped, the birds who had taken cover reappeared and, as though nothing had happened, the sentry flew down to join them – he had done his job.

In many animal groups, there will often be one amongst them who will act as a sentry or guard. Whether our sparrow was chosen by the others or spontaneously took on the role unprompted makes little difference, he was brave and determined and against all the odds saw off the threat. And a week after the confrontation, the reason for his brave stance became obvious. Suddenly the numbers of sparrows in our garden was bolstered as the usual gang were joined by five new fledglings who, a week earlier would have been the perfect play things for the black cat. The old male sparrow, who well exemplified the power of the individual, can be proud! 

The first illustration shows a photo taken a few days later of the male sparrow standing atop the trellising that surrounds our Richmond garden. The second illustration is a photo of the piercing green eyes of a black cat that are just like those belonging to the one to which our sparrow took exception.

For helping me write this blog, I would like to thank Jeni, Rohan and Vivien.