Duncan Cowan, 60, who keeps pigeons for showing and racing in a three interlinked lofts behind his home in a former Stirlingshire mining village, had already lost “in excess of 150” birds to roving birds of prey, Stirling Sheriff Court was told.

When he saw one being knocked out of the air by the hawk he reached for an ancient “legacy” air rifle and shot repeatedly to scare the raptor off, intending to miss.

Smashed wing

A sparrowhawk. Picture: JPI Media archive

But the pellets smashed the sparrowhawk’s wing and penetrated its chest and it was taken to a wildlife rescue centre where despite the attention of a vet who bandaged it, gave it painkillers, and put it on a drip, it died from blood loss.

Prosecutor Christine Danbolt said the shooting was witnessed by one of Cowan’s neighbours, who first noticed that Cowan’s pigeons, earlier circling normally, were “all over the place”.

Ms Danbolt said: “This drew his attention and he saw a bird of prey attacking something on the ground in a field. Feathers were flying and he saw the accused run to his shed and come out with an air rifle.

“He called his wife and the two of them went to an upstairs bedroom overlooking the accused’s rear garden.

Neighbour assistance

“They saw him fire at the bird of prey, and saw its wing shoot up. They estimate he fired three to four times at least.”

Cowan fired at least one more time, and then went into the field, photographed by his neighbour.

After a discussion, Cowan “stormed off” and the neighbour stayed with the injured sparrowhawk until police arrived.

Officers searched Cowan’s home for the gun, without finding it, but could not search the pigeon loft “because of health and safety concerns”, the depute fiscal said.

A later search also failed to locate the gun, which Cowan eventually said he had disposed of in landfill.

The Scottish SPCA took the sparrowhawk to their national wildlife rescue centre at Fishcross, Clackmannanshire.

Pigeon fancier spared jail after shooting Scottish hawk attacking his racers