Accipiters

The genus Accipiter comes from the Latin for hawk (accipere: “to grasp”). Three accipiters breed in North America. They are, from smallest to largest, Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus), Cooper’s Hawk (A. cooperii), and Northern Goshawk (A. gentilis). As with most birds or prey, adult female accipiters are larger than males.

Accipiters have slender bodies, relatively short, broad wings, and long tails, legs, and talons. Accipiters are well adapted for maneuverability and rapid in-flight hunting, able to pursue and grasp prey in dense shrubby habitat, sometimes pursuing them on foot right into the bushes. They mainly hunt other birds but also take small mammals such as rats, squirrels, and rabbits. All three North American accipiter species are diurnal hunters.