Backyard and Beyond

Starting out from Brooklyn, an amateur naturalist explores our world.

As John Burroughs said, “The place to observe nature is where you are.”

Raptor Wednesday

Sharpie! The little Accipiter, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Accipiter striatus.This was the bird who did not like our male American Kestrel back in the middle of February.But it wasn’t all sortie after sortie.This is a juvenile female. The males are substantially smaller: on average just a midge smaller than an American Kestrel, in fact. The one time I saw a male close up (I was looking through a picture window) I was quite surprised how petit he was. Accipiters have some of the greatest sexual dimorphism in birds: females are generally larger in raptors, but for these forest hawks, the disparity is substantial. There’s actually some overlap in size between a female Sharp-shinned and a male Cooper’s. Some more on this classic field question.

This common name, “Sharp-shinned” isn’t in the least helpful unless you have a bird in hand. (And with those talons, look out!) The “striatus” in the binomial means streaked.

mthew

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3 responses to “Raptor Wednesday”

  1. Sherry Felix

    Great photos. Love the Sharpy.

    Reply
  2. Raptor Wednesday | Backyard and Beyond

    […] The male of the #BrooklynKestrels pair is stashing prey in a rotted-out knot in his favorite perching tree. This photo is through the screen, rain, and foliage. But with those two little songbird feet sticking up like an amateur gangland corpse disposal, you get the drift. Have seen a few bodies cached here since discovering this spot a week ago.One day, both the female and the male landed one after the other on a nearby roof. It’s unusual for them to land on something they can’t grip. Some magnification on the scene revealed a bumblebee, no doubt somewhat discombobulated since it looked like the male had the bee in his bill briefly.Except for one rodent, the food list for these falcons has been all birds, as far as I have seen. In season, American Kestrels are said to be great devourers of dragonflies, and other insects, so we shall see what we shall see shortly.One of the birds, couldn’t tell which one, patrol-hovering after a run-in with a crow. The team don’t want any bad-boys around the nest. Crows have been patrolling the neighborhood for miscellaneous nestlings. They come in very low, one or two at a time. The falcons are furious in response against the rather larger corvids.A wet day.A couple interlopers on the perch.Also noted up there, Grackle and Sharp-shinned Hawk. […]

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  3. Sharp-shinned Monday | Backyard and Beyond

    […] these boys often. Here’s a female seen locally in February, 2018. Here’s some more from March of that year. And still […]

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