Sharp-shinned hawk
Accipiter striatus
Identification Tips:
- Length: 10.5 inches Wingspan: 21 inches
- Sexes similar, but females much larger
- Small, broad-winged, long-tailed hawk
- Short, dark, hooked beak
- Long, narrow tarsi
- Short, rounded wings
- Long tail is squared-off at tip with prominent corners
- Typically flies with several quick snappy wingbeats and a short glide,
but also soars
- Small rounded head does not project far beyond wings when soaring
Adult:
- Red eye
- Black cap
- Blue-gray back and upperwings
- White breast, belly and underwing coverts marked by fine, thin, reddish bars
- White undertail coverts
- Tail, blue gray above and pale below, barred with black bands
- Flight feathers, blue-gray above and pale below, with dark bars
Immature:
- Yellow eye
- Brown head with indistinct pale supercilium
- Brown cap, nape, back, and upperwings
- Tail, brown above and pale below, barred with black bands
- White underparts streaked extensively with dark brown, almost to the undertail
Similar species:
The Sharp-shinned Hawk is most similar to the Cooper's Hawk. In all plumages,
the Sharp-shinned Hawk has a shorter, less rounded tail with a thinner white
tip, slimmer tarsi, a more rounded head that does not project much beyond the
wings when soaring and a less snappy wingbeat. Male Sharp-shinned Hawks are
obviously smaller than all Cooper's Hawks. Adult Sharp-shinned Hawks have a
less well-defined cap while immatures have thicker, more extensive streaking
on the breast and belly. Immature Northern Goshawks are quite similar to
immature Sharp-shinneds but are much larger, more comparable in size to a
buteo. American Kestrel is similar in size but has pointed wingtips and quite
different patterns.
Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.