The genus Accipiter is a group of birds of prey in the family Accipitridae, many of which are named as goshawks and sparrowhawks. They can be anatomically distinguished from their relatives by the lack of a procoracoid foramen. Two small and aberrant species usually placed here do possess a large procoracoid foramen and are also distinct as regards DNA sequence. They may warrant separation in the old genus Hieraspiza.^[1]

Extant Accipiters range in size from the Little Sparrowhawk (A. minullus), in which the smallest males measure 20 cm (7.9 in) long, span 39 cm (15 in) across the wings and weigh 68 g (2.4 oz), to the Northern Goshawk (A. gentilis), in which the largest females measure 64 cm (25 in) long, span 127 cm (50 in) across the wings and weigh 2,200 g (4.9 lb).^[2] These birds are slender with short broad rounded wings and a long tail which helps them manoeuvre in flight. They have long legs and long sharp talons used to kill their prey, and a sharp hooked bill used in feeding. Females tend to be larger than males. They often ambush their prey, mainly small birds and mammals, capturing it after a short chase. The typical flight pattern is a series of flaps followed by a short glide. They are commonly found in wooded or shrubby areas.

Species in taxonomic order [edit]

• Northern Goshawk, Accipiter gentilis
• Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Accipiter nisus
• Grey-bellied Hawk, Accipiter poliogaster
• Crested Goshawk, Accipiter trivirgatus
• Sulawesi Goshawk, Accipiter griseiceps
• Red-chested Goshawk, Accipiter toussenelii
• African Goshawk, Accipiter tachiro
• Chinese Sparrowhawk, Accipiter soloensis
• Frances's Sparrowhawk, Accipiter francesiae
  • Anjouan Sparrowhawk, Accipiter francesiae pusillus
• Spot-tailed Sparrowhawk, Accipiter trinotatus
• Grey Goshawk, Accipiter novaehollandiae
• Brown Goshawk, Accipiter fasciatus
  • Christmas Goshawk, Accipiter (fasciatus) natalis
• Black-mantled Goshawk, Accipiter melanochlamys
• Pied Goshawk, Accipiter albogularis
• Fiji Goshawk, Accipiter rufitorques
• White-bellied Goshawk, Accipiter haplochrous
• Moluccan Goshawk, Accipiter henicogrammus
• Grey-headed Goshawk, Accipiter poliocephalus
• New Britain Goshawk, Accipiter princeps
• Black Sparrowhawk, Accipiter melanoleucus
• Henst's Goshawk, Accipiter henstii
• Meyer's Goshawk, Accipiter meyerianus
• Chestnut-flanked Sparrowhawk, Accipiter castanilius

Shikra (A. badius) with a garden lizard (Calotes sp.) in Hyderabad, India

Brown Goshawk (A. fasciatus), Kurwongbah (Queensland, Australia)

• Nicobar Sparrowhawk, Accipiter butleri
• Levant Sparrowhawk, Accipiter brevipes
• Slaty-mantled Goshawk, Accipiter luteoschistaceus
• Imitator Goshawk, Accipiter imitator
• Red-thighed Sparrowhawk, Accipiter erythropus
• Little Sparrowhawk, Accipiter minullus
• Japanese Sparrowhawk, Accipiter gularis
• Dwarf Sparrowhawk, Accipiter nanus
• Rufous-necked Sparrowhawk, Accipiter erythrauchen
• Collared Sparrowhawk, Accipiter cirrocephalus
• New Britain Sparrowhawk, Accipiter brachyurus
• Vinous-breasted Sparrowhawk, Accipiter rhodogaster
• Madagascar Sparrowhawk, Accipiter madagascariensis
• Ovambo Sparrowhawk, Accipiter ovampensis
• Rufous-chested Sparrowhawk, Accipiter rufiventris
• Shikra, Accipiter badius
• Tiny Hawk, Accipiter superciliosus – may belong in Hieraspiza
• Semicollared Hawk, Accipiter collaris – may belong in Hieraspiza
• Sharp-shinned Hawk, Accipiter striatus
  • White-breasted Hawk, Accipiter striatus chionogaster
  • Plain-breasted Hawk, Accipiter striatus ventralis
  • Rufous-thighed Hawk, Accipiter striatus erythronemius
• Cooper's Hawk, Accipiter cooperii
• Gundlach's Hawk, Accipiter gundlachi
• Bicolored Hawk, Accipiter bicolor
  • Chilean Hawk, Accipiter (bicolor) chilensis
• Besra, Accipiter virgatus

Extinct species include:

• Powerful Goshawk, Accipiter efficax^[3]
• Gracile Goshawk, Accipiter quartus^[3]

An Accipiter was seen on 12 March 1994 south of the summit of Camiguin in the Philippines, where the genus was not known to occur. It may have been an undescribed taxon, but more likely it was not; it could simply have been a vagrant of a known species.^[4]

Footnotes [edit]

References [edit]

• Balete, Danilo S.; Tabaranza, Blas R. Jr. & Heaney, Lawrence R. (2006): An Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Camiguin Island, Philippines. Fieldiana Zool. New Series 106: 58–72. DOI:10.3158/0015-0754(2006)106[58:AACOTB]2.0.CO;2 HTML abstract
• Heaney, Lawrence R. & Tabaranza, Blas R. Jr. (2006): Mammal and Land Bird Studies on Camiguin Island, Philippines: Background and Conservation Priorities. Fieldiana Zool. New Series 106: 1-13. DOI:10.3158/0015-0754(2006)106[1:MALBSO]2.0.CO;2 HTML abstract
• Olson, Storrs L. (2006): Reflections on the systematics of Accipiter and the genus for Falco superciliosus Linnaeus. Bull. B.O.C. 126: 69-70. PDF fulltext