Sharp-Shinned Hawk Habitats: Brown Bodies, Blue Eggs, Platform Nests

Summary: North American sharp-shinned hawk habitats in Canada and Mexico seasonally, the United States year-round get brown bodies from blue eggs in platform nests.

sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus) in Denali National Park and Preserve, central Alaska; Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009, 01:15:02, NPS Photo / Tim Rains: Denali National Park and Preserve (DenaliNPS), Public Domain, via Flickr

North American sharp-shinned hawk habitats attack cultivator anxieties through Accipitridae family member appetites for flower-, foliage- and fruit-eating perching birds and attract hunters and naturalists through distribution ranges from Canada through Mexico.

Sharp-shinned hawks bear their common name and the scientific name Accipiter striatus from the front inside lower leg's raised ridge and the immature stage's striped underparts. Agro-industry, construction, pollution, predation, recreation, tourism and urbanization challenge the sharp-shinned hawk, described in 1808 by French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot (May 10, 1748-Aug. 24, 1830). Fall migrations into Mexico and southward through Panama and spring migrations northward into Canada draw sharp-shinned hawks from communal or solitary life cycle stages into flocks.

Ten-plus-year lifespans expect dense forests with closed canopies, open terrain alongside such north-south geological formations as mountain ridges and woodland edges for hunting, migrating and nesting.

March through June furnish opportunities for brooding one three- to eight-egg clutch in platform nests 10 to 60 feet (3.05 to 18.29 meters) above the ground.

Sticks and twigs go into 2- to 3-inch- (5.08- to 7.62-centimeter-) deep, 6- to 7-inch- (15.24- to 17.78-centimeter-) high nests with bark chip and strip lining. Inner 6-inch (15.24-centimeter), outer 24- to 26-inch (60.96- to 66.04-centimeter) diameters house 1.29- to 1.65-inch (33- to 42-millimeter) by 1.1- to 1.34-inch (28- to 34-millimeter) eggs. Parents-to-be initiate 21- to 35-day incubations with the last-laid brown-, gray-, lilac-, rufous-, violet-blotched, mottled, speckled or splashed, non-glossy, oval to elliptical, pale blue, smooth eggs.

Bald eagles, flammulated owls, peregrine falcons and northern goshawks jeopardize North American sharp-shinned hawk habitats in boreal coniferous and temperate deciduous forests and semi-open savanna woodlands.

The semi-helpless nestlings know a first cream-white to yellowish, short down and, with occasional gray on their backs, a second long, pale purple-buff to white down. They live off food foraged by their fathers and portioned by their mothers and look feathered over seven-plus days from 14 to 21-plus days after hatching. They manage flight 23 to 32 days after hatching, with males fledging first, physical independence 21 to 28 days later and sexual maturity within two years. Adults need bats, frogs, grasshoppers, lizards, mice, moles and shrews and catbirds, doves, hummingbirds, juncos, pigeons, quail, robins, sparrows, starlings, swifts, thrushes, towhees, warblers and woodpeckers.

North American sharp-shinned hawk habitats at 2,952.76- to 12,139.11-foot (900- to 3,700-meter) altitudes offer winter's coldest temperatures at minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.77 degrees Celsius).

Sharp-shins prefer ash, aspen, beech, birch, cottonwood, elm, false-mesquite, hackberry, hickory, maple, mesquite, oak, poplar or wolfberry and cypress, fir, hemlock, larch, pine, redwood or spruce.

Brown, dark brown and gray-blue upperparts qualify as respectively distinguishing physical characteristics of adult males, juveniles with brown-streaked underparts and light yellow eyes and male adults. Dark outer flight feathers, fluffy white undertail feathers, gray tails with dark, horizontally wide bars, gray-blue crowns, red-yellow eyes and yellow feet and legs reveal adults. Rapid, strong flight on 16.93- to 22.84- inch (43- to 58-centimeter) wingspans suggests 3.53- to 6.17-ounce (100- to 175-gram), 9.45- to 13.38-inch (24- to 34-centimeter) adults.

Frantic, high-pitched kik-kik-kik calls of alarm, courtship and fledging team up with long toes, long spindle-thin legs and needle-like talons in North American sharp-shinned hawk habitats.

illustration of sharp-shinned hawk eggs; Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio, Plate LXIII, figure 1, page 253: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus) in Denali National Park and Preserve, central Alaska; Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009, 01:15:02, NPS Photo / Tim Rains: Denali National Park and Preserve (DenaliNPS), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/denalinps/5728187964/; Tim Rains/National Park Service, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sharp-shinned_Hawk_(5728187964).jpg

illustration of sharp-shinned hawk eggs; Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio, Plate LXIII, figure 1, page 253: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34908293

For further information:

Baicich, Paul J.; and Harrison, Colin J.O. Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds. Second edition. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, Princeton Field Guides, 2005.

Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd edition. Volumes 8-11, Birds I-IV, edited by Michael Hutchins, Jerome A. Jackson, Walter J. Bock and Donna Olendorf. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2002.

Jones, Howard. 1886. Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio. Illustrations by Mrs. N.E. Jones. Vol. II. Circleville OH: s.n. (sine nomine).
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34908433

Peterson, Alan P., M.D. "Accipiter striatus Vieillot 1808." Zoonomen: Zoological Nomenclature Resource > Birds of the World -- Current Valid Scientific Avian Names > Accipitriformes > Accipitridae > Accipiter.
Available @ http://www.zoonomen.net/avtax/acci.html

Rossem, A.J. (Adriaan Joseph) van. 1939. "A New Race of Sharp-Shinned Hawk From Mexico: Accipiter striatus suttoni subsp. nov." The Auk, vol. 56, no. 2 (April): 127.
Available via SORA (Searchable Ornithological Research Archive) @ https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v056n02/p0127-p0128.pdf

Snyder, L.L. (Lester Lynne). 14 July 1938. "The Northwest Coast Sharp-Shinned Hawk: Accipiter striatus perobscurus subsp. nov." Occasional Papers of the Royal Ontario Museum of Zoology, no. 4: 4-6. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/northwestcoastsh00snyd#page/4/

Storer, Robert W. (Winthrop). 1952. "Variation in the Resident Sharp-Shinned Hawks of Mexico: Accipiter striatus madrensis, new subspecies." Condor, vol. 54, no. 5 (September-October): 288-289.
Available via SORA (Searchable Ornithological Research Archive) @ https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/condor/v054n05/p0283-p0289.pdf

Vieillot, L.P. (Louis Pierre). 1807. "L'Épervier Rayé Accipiter striatus." Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux de l'Amérique Septentrionale, 1: 42-43. Paris, France: Chez Desray.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/47005629

Vigors, N.A. (Nicholas Aylward). 1827. "Article XLVI. Sketches in Ornithology: On Some Species of Birds From Cuba: 2. Accipiter fringiloides." Zoological Journal, vol. III, no. XI (September-December 1827): 434-435. London UK: W. Phillips.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/27485960

Wetmore, Alex. 10 July 1914. "A New Accipiter From Porto Rico With Notes on the Allied Forms of Cuba and San Domingo: Accipiter striatus venator new subspecies." Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, vol. XXVII: 119-121. Washington DC: H.L. and J.B. McQueen Inc.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/3334349

Wilson, Alexander. 1812. "Sharp-Shinned Hawk Falco Velox." American Ornithology, vol. V: 116-118. Philadelphia PA: Bradford and Inskeep.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/46338245