Sharp-shinned hawks normally convey their prey to a feeding perch, as this juvenile did in Somerville’s Spring Hill on Feb. 2. (Photo: John Barnett)
It isn’t uncommon to see raptors within the metropolis. Red-tailed hawks, peregrine falcons and Cooper’s hawks dominate the scene. But now and again you may encounter a extra elusive species – the sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus). It isn’t remarkable to see one right now of 12 months within the metropolis, probably close to a fowl feeder. These blue-jay-sized hawks don’t eat seeds, however they’re interested in the birds that go to yard feeders.
Sharp-shinned hawks – additionally referred to as sharpies, sharpshins, blue darters or hen hawks – usually choose dense forests. The feminine is a few third bigger than the male and due to this fact can catch bigger prey. During the breeding season in the summertime, these birds are current all through the state however are seldom noticed as a result of they nest excessive in conifers and perch in inconspicuous places. They don’t soar over timber like another birds.
Adult sharp-shinned hawks are bluish-gray above. Juveniles, reminiscent of this one in Somerville, are largely brown above with white splotches. (Photo: John Barnett)
The spring is likely to be among the best instances to see these small hawks in our space. Ninety p.c of a sharp-shinned hawk’s food regimen is small birds, from the scale of a sparrow to the scale of a robin. Females may even prey upon a pigeon or dove. Adult hawks must eat 4 or 5 birds every day. For this purpose, they comply with the warbler migration north within the spring. Mount Auburn Cemetery is a well-liked resting spot for migrating warblers. Look for them to reach with winds out of the southwest starting in April however peaking the primary week of May – because of this additionally among the best instances of the 12 months to identify sharp-shinned hawks. According to Brian Rusnica, president of Eastern Mass Hawk Watch, on May 2, 2021, observers noticed 461 sharp-shinned hawks migrating north over Plum Island.
A pointy-shinned hawk perches on a fence Nov. 26. (Photo: Richard George)
Sharp-shinned hawks use stealth to hunt. The males, who weigh about 3 ounces (the load of a deck of playing cards) are smaller than the females, who weigh about 6 ounces (the load of a cellular phone). A sharpie may sit immobile on a department ready to ambush a songbird that occurs unsuspectingly by. Or it would shock its prey by threading its method over or round thickets or different obstacles to ambush it. John James Audubon described the habits this manner in Birds of America:
Many have been the instances … when I’ve seen it plunge headlong among the many briary patches of one among our old fields, in defiance of all thorny obstacles, and, passing via, emerge on the opposite facet, bearing off with exultation in its sharp claws a Sparrow or Finch, which it had stunned when at relaxation.
These hawks squeeze and impale prey with their talons throughout flight. They carry the prey to a stump or department the place they pluck it earlier than they eat it as a result of, in contrast to owls, they don’t swallow feathers. They eat the remainder of the carcass, although, bones and all.
A pointy-shinned hawk catches a starling from a flock of 70 birds in Pepperell. (Photo: Tom Murray)
Large numbers of sharp-shinned hawks migrate south from Canadian forests each fall to the Southeastern United States or Central America. They depend on mountain updrafts or thermals to achieve elevation after which glide down, conserving as a lot vitality as attainable for his or her long-distance journey. Sharp-shinned hawk numbers are biggest throughout fall migration as a result of many not too long ago born juveniles enhance the inhabitants, smaller within the spring as a result of many of those juveniles don’t survive. Although sharpies don’t migrate in flocks – they’re solitary migrants – when climate situations are good, you’ll be able to see them in nice numbers.
Hawks are some of the clever of birds. In research of progressive bird-feeding behaviors, crows and falcons topped the listing, adopted carefully by hawks, woodpeckers and herons. The extra progressive a species of fowl, the bigger the forebrain. When scientists have tried to relocate birds to new areas, essentially the most progressive birds had been essentially the most profitable at surviving or thriving within the new environments. This hawk intelligence could stand them in good stead as local weather change alters the hawk’s setting. There is already some proof that these birds don’t migrate as far south as they used to.
A pointy-shinned hawk devours a cardinal on Dec. 14, 2016, in Groton. (Photo: Tom Murray)
Arthur Cleveland Bent in Life Histories of North American Birds of Prey (1937) relays a story of their intelligence:
Several instances in August and September a pair of sharpshins grew into the behavior of utilizing a big meadow as a feeding floor … the place woodchucks had been usually killed by the State patrolmen and left as they lay … [T]he sharpshins turned within the behavior of showing on the report of a rifle, enjoying above the lofty elm timber, nonchalantly watchful of the doings under. What intuition is that this that advised them man was not there to molest them however the woodchucks, and that later these identical spoils would supply as much as them a booty?
These hawks had been as soon as hunted relentlessly, so making this distinction was maybe no small feat. Bent tells of every week in September 1920 in Cape May, New Jersey, when hunters shot 1,400 sharpies.
A pointy-shinned hawk flies above Somerville’s Assembly Row on Oct. 8, 2020. (Photo: Cody Matheson)
In April or May, the hawk’s breeding season begins. On a significant department about 30 ft above the bottom, the hawks build a 2-foot-diameter nest of sticks lined with flakes of bark. The feminine lays 4 or 5 eggs, which hatch in a few month. The male brings meals to the feminine and will sit on the eggs whereas she eats. Once the chicks hatch, the male continues to convey meals, which the feminine feeds to the chicks. After three or extra weeks, the chicks transfer out onto branches. They begin flying in one other week or two. The dad and mom proceed to feed the fledglings for a number of weeks, dropping lifeless prey close by. Eventually, the dad and mom, in flight, cross prey from their talons to the children, who seize it as they fly by.
A juvenile sharp-shinned hawk perches in Cambridge on March 8, 2019. (Photo: Brian Rusnica)
Birds are tailored for flight. Sharp-shinned hawks have a particular flap-and-glide flight sample: flap, flap, flap, glide. Like all birds, they’ve skinny, light-weight bones, a toothless beak (as a substitute of enamel and a jawbone) and fewer bones than mammals. In addition, their forelimbs have developed into wings, that are useful for flight however useless for a lot of different duties. Therefore, birds use their beaks for duties reminiscent of preening their feathers. To attain the feathers at the back of their our bodies, sharp-shinned hawks have a versatile neck with 14 neck vertebrae (people have solely seven).
Prey animals have eyes which are far aside on the top, to allow them to see throughout them. Predator species have eyes are nearer collectively within the entrance of the top (like people). This permits them to deal with a goal. Sharp-shinned hawks have fabulous eyesight and might spot motion from nice distances, which might be why we use the expression to observe one thing “like a hawk.” They can see eight instances higher than people, they usually can see 4 colours (together with ultraviolet), as a substitute of the three colours people can see. Therefore, they decide up particulars which are not possible for us to see.
Have you taken photographs of our city wild issues? Send your photographs to Cambridge Day, and we could use them as a part of a future characteristic. Include the photographer’s identify, date and the overall location the place the photograph was taken in addition to another related info.
Jeanine Farley is an academic author who has lived within the Boston space for greater than 30 years. She enjoys taking photographs of our city wild issues.
