Once considered “the enemy of all small birds” (Sutton 1928a), the Sharp-shinned Hawk is a small, slender, feisty accipiter, with short, rounded wings and a long, narrow tail.The tail tends to be square-tipped and may show a notch at the tip. Females are considerably larger than males. Although small mammals and even insects appear in its diet, this forest-dwelling predator feeds almost entirely on small birds.
Sharp-shinned Hawks are widely dispersed and seldom-seen nesters that breed mainly in large stands of deciduous, coniferous, and mixed pine-hardwood forests and pine plantations. In temperate areas, nesting coincides with the annual peak in songbird abundance. The species' secretive nature and the dense vegetation of its nesting habitat make it difficult to find and study during the breeding season. The early stages of nesting, in particular, are little studied. The bird is best seen, and most frequently studied, on migration, when large numbers of individuals concentrate along major migratory corridors and bottlenecks, particularly in the East.
As is true of many members of the genus, the Sharp-shinned Hawk has especially long middle toes and large eyes, useful attributes for catching highly mobile prey. The species is the most sexually dimorphic of all North American raptors, with males averaging only 57% of the body mass of females (Snyder and Wiley 1976).
Color Pattern
Adults are slaty blue-gray above, with narrow, horizontal red-orange bars on the breast. Immature birds are mostly brown, with coarse vertical streaks on white underparts. Adults and young have broad dark bands across their long tails.