Birds of Central Oklahoma

All birds Hawks, Eagles, and Kites

Sharp-shinned Hawk, adult
Adult Photo by ALAN SCHMIERER from near Patagonia, AZ, USA. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Accipiter striatus

Here October to March.

Recorded by Richard E. Webster. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, via xeno-canto, trimmed and volume evened out.

Look for

  1. Blue-gray on the back, with a pale, reddish chest.
  2. A small head and very thin legs, about as thin as a pencil.
  3. A long tail. The tip of the tail usually looks square.

A little about it

This small hawk hunts other birds. It travels more than any of its close cousins. Some nest as far north as Alaska and Canada, and some spend the winter as far south as Panama. Here, look for Sharp-shins from October to March.

It hides in the leaves and waits for a small bird to come close. Or it sneaks up through thick bushes. Then it bursts out with a very fast flight and grabs the bird with its feet. Sometimes it zips low through the trees, dodging branches, to take birds by surprise.

Most of its food is birds from sparrow size up to robin size. It also eats a few mice, bats, lizards, frogs, and big bugs.

Most Sharp-shins nest in thick evergreen trees, like spruce or fir. The nest is a pile of sticks, usually 20 to 60 feet up. The female lays 4 or 5 eggs and sits on them for 30 to 35 days. The young can fly when they're 5 or 6 weeks old.

Fun fact

When a pair gets ready to nest, they may circle over the forest and call. They spread the fluffy white feathers under their tails out to the sides. The male may fly up high and then dive steeply down into the woods.

When it's here

Taller bars mean more sightings. Most often seen in October.

More winter birds

How big

SparrowRobinCrowGoose

10 to 14 inches. About as big as a robin, or a bit bigger.

Where to look

Woods and brushy places. It stays away from wide open land, so look where there are lots of trees and bushes.

  • In the woods
  • Yards and parks

People have spotted it at Lake Hefner, Lake Thunderbird State Park.

Could it be something else?

  • Cooper's Hawk

    Same colors, but usually bigger. Its tail has a rounded tip. A big female Sharp-shin can be almost as big as a male Cooper's Hawk, so look at the head and tail. A Sharp-shin has a small head and a square-looking tail tip.

  • Young Sharp-shinned Hawk

    Brown on top instead of gray, with stripes down its chest and belly.

More photos

Sharp-shinned Hawk, young bird
Young bird Photo by Becky Matsubara from El Sobrante, California. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Where these facts come from