WILDLIFE DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
WILDLIFE SPECIES: Accipiter striatus | Sharp-Shinned Hawk 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
The sharp-shinned hawk breeds from western and central Alaska and
northern Yukon Territory east to the Atlantic coast, and south to
southern California, southern Texas, the northern parts of the Gulf
States, and South Carolina [10,39,50].

Sharp-shinned hawks winter from Vancouver Island, southern British Columbia,
western Montana, Nebraska, southern Minnesota, Illinois, southern Michigan,
southern Ontario, New York, southern Vermont, southern New Hampshire,
southern Maryland, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia south to Panama and the
Bahamas [10,39,50].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
FRES10 White-red-jack pine
FRES11 Spruce-fir
FRES12 Longleaf-slash pine
FRES13 Loblolly-shortleaf pine
FRES14 Oak-pine
FRES15 Oak-hickory
FRES16 Oak-gum-cypress
FRES17 Elm-ash-cottonwood
FRES18 Maple-beech-birch
FRES19 Aspen-birch
FRES20 Douglas-fir
FRES21 Ponderosa pine
FRES22 Western white pine
FRES23 Fir-spruce
FRES24 Hemlock-Sitka spruce
FRES25 Larch
FRES26 Lodgepole pine
FRES27 Redwood
FRES28 Western hardwoods
FRES32 Texas savanna
FRES34 Chaparral-mountain shrub
FRES35 Pinyon-juniper


STATES : 


    
AL
    
AK
	
AZ
    
AR
    
CA
    
CO
    
CT
    
DE
    
FL
    
GA


    
ID
    
IL
    
IN
    
IA
    
KS
    
KY
    
LA
    
ME
    
MD
    
MA


    
MI
    
MN
    
MS
    
MO
    
MT
    
NE
    
NV
    
NH
    
NJ
    
NM


    
NY
    
NC
    
ND
    
OH
    
OK
    
OR
    
PA
    
RI
    
SC
    
SD


    
TN
    
TX
    
UT
    
VT
    
VA
    
WA
    
WV
    
WI
    
WY
	
PR






    
AB
    
BC
    
MB
    
NB
    
NF
    
NT
    
NS
    
ON
    
PE
    
PQ


    
SK
    
YT
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    







    
MEXICO
    





BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
    1  Northern Pacific Border
    2  Cascade Mountains
    3  Southern Pacific Border
    4  Sierra Mountains
    5  Columbia Plateau
    6  Upper Basin and Range
    7  Lower Basin and Range
    8  Northern Rocky Mountains
    9  Middle Rocky Mountains
   10  Wyoming Basin
   11  Southern Rocky Mountains
   12  Colorado Plateau
   13  Rocky Mountain Piedmont
   14  Great Plains
   15  Black Hills Uplift
   16  Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   Sharp-shinned hawks occur in almost every forest type.


SAF COVER TYPES : 
   Sharp-shinned hawks occur in almost every forest type.


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
The sharp-shinned hawk occurs primarily in coniferous forests, but is
also found in boreal mixed conifer-birch-aspen forests [50].  It is less
common in other woodland types, except in mountainous areas [10].  Open
areas are used for foraging but not for nesting.  Diem and Zeveloff [11]
listed sharp-shinned hawks as members of ponderosa pine (Pinus
ponderosa) bird communities in the western United States.

Breeding:  In Colorado, sharp-shinned hawks breed in quaking aspen
(Populus tremuloides) and conifer (Picea spp., Abies spp., Pinus spp.,
and Pseudotsuga menziesii) forests.  Nests are usually only built in
conifer stands; within quaking aspen forests, nests are built in patches
of conifers within aspen stands [24].  In Missouri, most sharp-shinned
hawk nesting occurs in plantation pine (mostly shortleaf pine [Pinus
echinata]) with some nests in mixed pine-hardwoods [54].  Optimal
breeding habitat in the southeastern states is mixed pine-hardwoods.
Marginal breeding habitat includes eastern white pine (Pinus
strobus)-eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), cove hardwoods (hardwood
forests on mesic sites), and maple (Acer spp.)-beech (Fagus spp.)-birch
(Betula spp.) [27].  Mansell [35] recorded a sharp-shinned hawk nest in
a field that had numerous clumps of small pines and spruces.

Foraging:  In Colorado, sharp-shinned hawks were observed hunting in
mature aspen (Populus spp.), conifer, and mixed aspen-conifer forests
[24].  In southern Arizona, sharp-shinned hawks were frequently seen
perched or flying in dense stands of mature mesquite (Prosopis spp.),
hackberry (Celtis occidentalis), wolfberry (Lycium spp.), and
falsemesquite (Calliandra spp.) along sandy washes and around stock
tanks, which constitutes habitat preferred by Gambel's quail (Callipepla
gambelii) but not by scaled quail (C. squamata) [17].

Wintering:  In California riparian woodland, sharp-shinned hawks were
present from August to May but were not present during the breeding
season [32].  In southern California, sharp-shinned hawks were commonly
seen in chaparral (Adenostoma, Ceanothus, and Arctostaphylos spp.)
except during the summer months [55].  Optimum winter habitat for
sharp-shinned hawks in the southeastern states is live oak (Quercus
virginiana)-maritime forest.  Suitable habitat in the southeastern
states for wintering sharp-shinned hawks includes tropical hardwood
forest, southern scrub oak (Quercus spp.), southern mixed-mesic
hardwoods, bay swamp-pocosin, pond pine (P. serotina)-pocosin, loblolly
pine (P. taeda)- shortleaf pine, and elm-ash-cottonwood (Ulmus
spp.-Fraxinus spp.-Populus spp.).  Marginal winter habitat includes sand
pine (P. clausa)-southern scrub oak, longleaf pine (P. palustris)-
southern scrub oak, sandhills longleaf pine, longleaf pine-slash pine
(P. elliottii), and oak-gum-cypress (Quercus spp.-Liquidambar
styraciflua and Nyssa spp.-Taxodium spp.) [19].


REFERENCES : 
NO-ENTRY

Related categories for Wildlife Species: Accipiter striatus | Sharp-Shinned Hawk