Sharp-shinned Hawk

Accipiter striatus

Urban History

Sharp-shinned Hawks are common winter residents in Seattle from September through March, but they are rare during the breeding season. Two reasons probably account for their scarcity as urban nesters:
– Relative lack of dense conifer stands for nest concealment, and
– Abundance of larger raptor predators, such as Cooper’s Hawks, Barred Owls, and Peregrine Falcons. In June 1994, Ed Deal found a Sharp-shinned Hawk leg on the roof of a downtown Seattle tower, no doubt a Peregrine kill.
Successful nests have been documented in suburbs of north Seattle (2013) and east of Lake Washington (2014).