Accipiter nisus 1 (Bohuš Číčel)🦅

Photo: Bohuš Číčel (https://www.flickr.com/photos/bci… · CC BY-SA 3.0

SpeciesAccipitriformesAccipitridae
Birds

🦅Eurasian Sparrowhawk

Accipiter nisus (Linnaeus, 1758)

The Eurasian sparrowhawk, also known as the northern sparrowhawk or simply the sparrowhawk, is a small bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. Adult male Eurasian sparrowhawks have bluish grey upperparts and orange-barred underparts; females and juveniles are brown above with brown barring below. The female is up to 25% larger than the male – one of the greatest size differences between the sexes in any bird species. Though it is a predator which specialises in catching woodland birds, the Eurasian sparrowhawk can be found in any habitat and often hunts garden birds in towns and cities. Males tend to take smaller birds, including tits, finches and sparrows; females catch primarily thrushes and starlings but are capable of killing birds weighing 500 g (18 oz) or more.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Videos
13
Photos
6
Measurements
10
vs you
≈ 1/280th of your weight
Conservation status
LCLeast concern

IUCN Red List assessment, 2021.

Population trendStable
Key measurements
Body mass
0.22 kg
Body length
not recorded
Shoulder height
not recorded
Top speed
not recorded
Bite force
not recorded
Maximum lifespan
20 years
All measurements ↓
Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Eurasian Sparrowhawk

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass
0.22 kg
AVONET
Other figures ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

By sex

  • Female290 kgWikidataQ25380
  • Male150 kgWikidataQ25380

Figures vary

  • 0.24 kgAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Tail length
0.16 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Wing length
0.21 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Beak length
0.02 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Tarsus length
0.05 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Maximum lifespan
20 years
AnAge
Details ↓

data quality: acceptable

Source: AnAge · AnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR) · CC BY 3.0

Trophic level
Carnivore
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Habitat
Forest
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Lifestyle
Insessorial
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Volume l
0.2 Laverage
Details ↓

Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.

average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.

Not recorded for Eurasian Sparrowhawk yet: body length, shoulder height, top speed, bite force.

More

More about the Eurasian Sparrowhawk

Closest relative on this site
🦅 Hen Harrier — last shared an ancestor ≈ 24 million years ago.
In other languages
雀鹰 (zh), krogulec zwyczajny (pl), gavilán común (es), karvaly (hu), sperwer (nl), باشق أوراسي (ar) … and 26 more languages

Animals caught on camera

Real footage of the animals on this site — hunting, fighting, and getting on with it.

See all 13 videos →
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