Sharp Shinned Hawk Diet

Almost 100 of the sharp shinned hawk diet is songbirds. These raptors have distinctive proportions.

The Puerto Rican Sharp Shinned Hawk By Gina Harris

Studies report quail shorebirds doves swifts woodpeckers and even falcons as prey.

Sharp shinned hawk diet. Small birds sparrow sized up to robins and occasionally quail are the most common prey although small rodents reptiles and large insects are part of the diet as well. Diet and feeding these are carnivorous birds that eat small prey including mice and other small mammals as well as small birds such as sparrows and finches. Rarely they will also eat rodents lizards frogs snakes large insects and occasionally bats.

They tend to focus on catching small birds usually around chickadee or sparrow sized as opposed to larger birds like robins doves or quail. Sharp shinned hawks are carnivores that feed on small birds especially various songbirds such as sparrows wood warblers finches wrens nuthatches tits icterids and thrushes. Long legs short wings and very long tails which they use for navigating their deep woods homes at top speed in pursuit of songbirds and mice.

Sharp shinned hawk diet sharp shinned hawks prey almost exclusively on small medium birds. Songbirds make up about 90 percent of the sharp shinned hawks diet. The sharp shinned hawk accipiter striatus is a small hawk with males being the smallest hawks in the united states and canada but with the species averaging larger than some neotropical species such as the tiny hawkthe taxonomy is far from resolved with some authorities considering the southern taxa to represent three separate species.

They have very long toes with long spicules which have evolved to help them hold onto the feathers of their prey. It has been recorded that sharp shinned hawks live for about 3 years on an average. Birds the size of american robins or smaller especially warblers sparrows and thrushes are the most frequent prey.

However certain individuals may live for over 10 years. The sharp shinned hawks nesting cycle coincides with peak songbird abundance. Sharp shinned hawk accipiter striatus the smallest of our bird hunting accipiter hawks this one is also the most migratory breeding north to treeline in alaska and canada and wintering south to panama.

The sharp shinned hawk is known to have some predators including the peregrine falcons red tailed hawks coopers hawks resemble sharp shin in coloration and plumage and the marsh hawks. The sharp shinned hawks long tail and rounded wings give them excellent maneuverability through dense brush and trees in pursuit of prey. A tiny hawk that appears in a blur of motionand often disappears in a flurry of feathers.

Sharp shinned hawks are often seen hunting during winter in town parks or woodlots searching for prey. Bigger birds are at less risk though theyre not completely safe. Thats the sharp shinned hawk the smallest hawk in canada and the united states and a daring acrobatic flier.

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