Sharp-shinned hawk
Accipiter striatus Vieillot, 1808
The sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus) is a species in the family Accipitridae, order Accipitriformes. Recorded adults weigh 103 g to 174 g and live up to 12.6 years. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.
Quick facts about the sharp-shinned hawk
- Weight
- 103 g – 174 gsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Wingspan
- 55 cm – 65 cmsrc for Wingspan
- Lifespan
- 12.6 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Carnivoresrc for Diet
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 19.9 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- forestsrc for Habitat
- Egg incubation
- 33 dayssrc for Egg incubation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 4.25src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 12 months – 18 monthssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 1src for Litters or clutches a year
- Lifestyle
- Aerialsrc for Lifestyle
- Migration
- Migratorysrc for Migration
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
How big is the sharp-shinned hawk?
Where does the sharp-shinned hawk live?
Not recorded
What is the sharp-shinned hawk?
The sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus) or northern sharp-shinned hawk, colloquially often nicknamed sharpie, 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 hawk. The taxonomy is far from resolved, with some authorities considering the southern taxa to represent three separate species, white-breasted hawk (A. chionogaster), plain-breasted hawk (A. ventralis), and rufous-thighed hawk (A. erythronemius). The American Ornithological Society and some other checklists keep all four species conspecific. A recent genetic study additionally recommended splitting the three Caribbean island populations as three additional separate species, though this has not yet been adopted by any of the ornithological authorities.
From the Wikipedia article “Sharp-shinned hawk” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sharp-shinned_hawk&oldid=1384672393), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
What does the sharp-shinned hawk sound like?
Is the sharp-shinned hawk endangered?
The sharp-shinned hawk is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.
How is the sharp-shinned hawk classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderAccipitriformes
- familyAccipitridae
- genusAccipiter
- SpeciesAccipiter striatus Vieillot, 1808
Other names and names in other languages (62)
- Bird hawkEnglish
- Bullet hawkEnglish
- Little blue darterEnglish
- SharpieEnglish
- Slate-colored hawkEnglish
- باز أصهب الفخذArabic
- باز اصهب الفخذEgyptian Arabic
- omachska-pispsksiSiksiká
- Esparver americàCatalan
- esparver nord-americàCatalan
- ᏗᎦᎦᏛᎾᎯᏛCherokee
- krahujec americkýCzech
- Gwalch CynffonsgwarWelsh
- Amerikansk SpurvehøgDanish
- EckschwanzsperberGerman
- StriakcipitroEsperanto
- amerika akcipitroEsperanto
- Gavilán PajareroSpanish
- Esparvero comúnSpanish
- Esparvero EstriadoSpanish
- Gavilán americanoSpanish
- Gavilán ChicoSpanish
- Gavilán de sierraSpanish
- Gavilán pecho blancoSpanish
- Gavilán Pecho CanelaSpanish
- Gavilán pecho rufoSpanish
- Guaraguaíto de SierraSpanish
- ameerika raudkullEstonian
- باز ساقتیزPersian
- amerikanvarpushaukkaFinnish
- Épervier brunFrench
- Seabhac géar-altachIrish
- Malfini mouchèHaitian Creole
- csíkos karvalyHungarian
- sparviero striatoItalian
- Sparviere americanoItalian
- Sparviero americanoItalian
- アシボソハイタカJapanese
- 줄무늬새매Korean
- ЦӀару чинеругLezghian
- Čhetáŋ glegléɡ̌aLakota
- rausvaausis vanagasLithuanian
- strīpainais vanagsLatvian
- TsįyaalzhahíNavajo
- Amerikaanse sperwerDutch
- tverrhalehaukNorwegian
- BoonoseOjibwa
- krogulec zmiennyPolish
- gavião-miúdoPortuguese
- gavião-de-canela-finaPortuguese
- gavião-estriadoPortuguese
- tauató-miúdoPortuguese
- Полосатый ястребRussian
- Американский перепелятникRussian
- jastrab čiarkovýSlovak
- Američki kobacSerbian
- amerikansk sparvhökSwedish
- Amerika AtmacasıTurkish
- яструб неоарктичнийUkrainian
- Diều hâu vuốt sắcVietnamese
- 條紋鷹Chinese
- 纹腹鹰Chinese
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List
Relatives of the sharp-shinned hawk
Other species in the same genus Accipiter.
Eurasian sparrowhawk
Accipiter nisus
Ovambo sparrowhawk
Accipiter ovampensis
Madagascar sparrowhawk
Accipiter madagascariensis
Grey-bellied hawk
Accipiter poliogaster
Rufous-breasted sparrowhawk
Accipiter rufiventris
Rufous-thighed hawk
Accipiter erythronemius
CompareSharp-shinned hawk vs Eurasian sparrowhawkSharp-shinned hawk vs Ovambo sparrowhawkSharp-shinned hawk vs Madagascar sparrowhawkSharp-shinned hawk vs Grey-bellied hawk
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the sharp-shinned hawk?
An adult sharp-shinned hawk weighs 103 g – 174 g and has a wingspan of 55 cm – 65 cm, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Is the sharp-shinned hawk endangered?
The sharp-shinned hawk is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.
How long does the sharp-shinned hawk live?
The sharp-shinned hawk has a recorded lifespan of 12.6 years.
What kind of animal is the sharp-shinned hawk?
The sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus) belongs to the family Accipitridae in the order Accipitriformes.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
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Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/sharp-shinned-hawk
“Sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/sharp-shinned-hawk.
@misc{sharp_shinned_hawk_2026,
title = {Sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/sharp-shinned-hawk},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}