The Sharp-shinned Hawk, nicknamed the “sharpie”, is the smallest hawk in North America. Image: Dennis Murphy | Flickr | CC BY 2.0 Males help a bit with incubation of eggs, but dad’s main duty during this time is brining food to the female and chasing other birds away from the nest. They may also choose to use an old nest built by other small hawk species like the Shikra and Gabar Goshawk. Similar to other small hawks, their main prey is birds such as doves and thrush species, but they also hunt rodents, bats, lizards, frogs and even large insects.įemales do most of the nest construction, building a platform of sticks and leaves in the fork of a tree such as poplars and Eucalyptus. One of their distinguishing features is a white patch on the rump and two white spots on the central tail-feathers. They have a dark yellow eye and orange-yellow legs and feet. Males vary from dark grey to almost black, while females tend to be browner. Little Sparrowhawks have dark upperparts and light underparts with fine barring. These small hawks can be found in woodland and grassland regions of eastern and southern sub-Saharan Africa. Males only weigh 74-85 grams and are about 10 inches long, with females being about 13% larger. The Little Sparrowhawk is the smallest member of the Accipiter genus, one of the main genus’s containing hawks. Little Sparrowhawk Little Sparrowhawk in tree | image by Bernard DUPONT via Flickr | CC BY-SA 2.0 They can soar high above the trees like larger hawks, but more often dart quickly in the thick of the forest.Ģ. Rodents and bats also make up a portion of their diet.įor the most part, they are a secretive species, often perching out of sight in the middle forest canopy. Some studies suggest that Tiny Hawks may learn popular perching spots of hummingbirds and routinely stake out those areas. They will either sit quietly and wait until a bird passes by to dart out and snatch them, or ambush the smaller birds while they are perching. In particular, they are known for hunting hummingbirds. Tiny Hawks stick to forest habitat where their main prey is other birds. Their yellow, hooked beak is tipped with black, and they have red eyes. They have a dark gray back with a slightly darker cap, a white throat, and white underparts barred with gray. Tiny Hawks live in Central and South America, ranging from Nicaragua to southern Brazil. This small hawk species measures only 7.9 – 10.5 inches in length and males weigh in around 75 grams, comparable to a large songbird. The Tiny Hawk is one of the smallest true raptors in the world, which is probably obvious by its name.
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