How to Identify a Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus)

• Head pattern: Small-headed compared to Cooper's Hawk
• Tail: Tip of tail usually looks squared off, though it can look rounded especially when spread
• Body pattern: Adult: blue-gray above, pale reddish below; young brown above, striped below
• Size compared with look-alikes: Female Sharp-shinned Hawk can be almost as large as a male Cooper's Hawk, so size alone is not a reliable field mark between the sexes/species
• Flight silhouette: Broad, rounded wing shape; hunts with rapid, maneuverable flight threading around obstacles

Sharp-shinned Hawk is small-headed with a squared-off tail tip, while Cooper's Hawk has a relatively bigger head, longer tail with a more rounded tip and a wider white terminal band; a female Sharp-shinned can be nearly as large as a male Cooper's, so head/tail shape are more reliable than size alone The Cooper's Hawk page lists its own marks.

Mixed or coniferous forests, open deciduous woodlands, thickets, and edges; nests in groves of coniferous trees in mixed woods Breeds from Alaska and Canada south through most of the continent; highly migratory, wintering as far south as Panama

Hunts with rapid, maneuverable flight, threading through obstacles using a broad, rounded wing shape

Raptors are usually far away and against the sky, so expose for the bird, not the sky, and take several frames as it turns: the tail shape, wing shape and underwing pattern show best in flight. For a perched bird, get the head and chest in one frame. Size is hard to judge alone; compare with a nearby crow, gull or fence post. The app names the likely species; confirm with the marks above.