Bird of the Week – Sharp-shinned Hawk
Alaska has two Accipters, the genus of smaller hawks with rounded wings and long tails. This is the smaller of the two, the Sharp-shinned Hawk.
Sharp-shinned Hawk Juvenile, Chena Hot Springs Road, Fairbanks
This is a juvenile, still counting on mom and dad for meals. In fact, he caught WC’s attention by his incessant squawking, begging for food. WC would guess that he’s pretty near his last delivered meal, that his parents were gong to leave him on his own pretty soon. If he kept that noise going all night he would have wound up a snack for a Great-horned Owl.
The Sharp-shined Hawk feeds almost exclusively on smaller birds. Everybody has to make a living.
Camera geek stuff: f11, 1/500, ISO500.
For more bird photos, please visit Frozen Feather Images.
I’m guessing that sharp shins would come in handy at a bird bath brawl with sharptail grouses and bystanders with Sharpies.