Cooper’s and sharp-shinned hawks are in the genus Accipiter, which includes the northern goshawk that rarely shows up in Texas. Cooper’s hawk was named for American zoologist William Cooper ...

Accipiters include the sharp-shinned hawk, Cooper’s hawk and American goshawk. Buteos include the red-tailed hawk, rough-legged hawk , broad-winged hawk and red-shouldered hawk. Falcons ...

Unbeknownst to me, a sharp-shinned hawk had been sitting in the large Eastern cottonwood tree that grows next to my deck. The blue jay, having had enough of the hawk, decided to come in close and ...

The sharp-shinned hawk, commonly called a sharpie, is a small hawk with a big attitude. About the size of a blue jay, it is the smallest hawk in North America. No matter.

A blue jay (top left) and an immature sharp-shinned hawk (bottom right) take flight from an eastern cottonwood during an ongoing feud that was amusing to observe.

Sharp-shinned hawks are significantly less well-studied than goshawks. They are much smaller — roughly a fifth of the body mass of a goshawk. Females are about twice as big as males.

The sharp-shinned hawk and Cooper’s hawk are also easily mistaken. However, thankfully, there are a few ways to tell the ...

The sharp-shinned hawk is about 11 inches long from head to tail and this is exactly the same length as that of the blue jay. As a result, they tend to focus their predatory efforts on birds that are ...

Our daughter, who lives up the creek, spotted the culprit first; and shortly thereafter, it made an appearance at our place: a sharp-shinned hawk. Note: This column originally was published Jan. 1 ...

He pointed out the sharp-shinned hawks numbers were in line with past years. They found 3,574 birds, which is close to the 10-year average of 3,624. However, in the long-term data, ...

The subtle art of distinguishing Cooper’s and sharp-shinned hawks is beyond the scope of this column, but some broadly shared characteristics of the two local Accipiter hawks can be mentioned here.

Georgia’s hawk species include red-shouldered, red-tailed, broad-winged, Cooper’s and sharp-shinned hawks. A sixth hawk species, the Northern harrier, is a winter-only resident that is ...