Sharp-shinned Hawk

How to find it

Plan around the autumn passage rather than hoping for a resident bird. The best conditions for watching migrating hawks are between 7:30 am and 1 pm. The hawks ride rising warm air, so look up on sunny mornings. Migrating hawks funnel through the Caribbean slope, so the lowlands near that coast are where to point your binoculars. Over three million raptors cross the country in the migration period, a flow naturalists call rivers of birds, so check each one for the small head and square-tipped tail.

How to recognise it

Adults are dark gray above, with a white throat streaked in black. The underparts are barred in pale reddish-brown and white, and the tail is gray.

In flight, look for three things: short rounded wings, a long narrow tail, and a square tip to that tail. The bird alternates quick flaps with glides.

The head looks proportionally small because the wings are held forward less. That small head and square-tipped tail are the marks to check on every passing accipiter.

What it sounds like

Recording: enspring, CC0 1.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

This is a small hawk that hunts other birds. It flies low through trees and shrubs and takes songbirds after a short, fast chase. In Costa Rica it is also recorded eating small mammals.

Migrating hawks behave differently. They rarely flap. They look for the first columns of warm air of the day, gain height on spread wings, then glide across the sky.

Where it lives

In winter, Sharp-shinned Hawks use scrubby second growth, hedgerows, farmland with scattered trees and coffee plantations. They are sometimes seen in suburban areas.

On the southbound migration the hawks follow the lowlands near the Caribbean coast. They pass Sarapiquí, Guápiles, Siquirres and Limón on the way to Panama. A bird tour list also records the species at Arenal.

When to see it

On the trip south, these hawks pass through Costa Rica for about six weeks, in October and part of November. A regional news report also describes thousands crossing the northern lowlands between September and October.

Similar birds

Cooper's Hawk is the usual confusion. The Sharp-shinned flaps faster and has a smaller, square-tipped tail. Cooper's has slower flaps and a longer, rounded tail. Two other accipiters, Cooper's and Bicolored Hawk, also share the Camaleón nickname, so the local name alone will not settle the identification.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The official Costa Rican name is Gavilán Pajarero, and the list gives Camaleón in brackets as the everyday name. Cooper's and Bicolored Hawk share the Camaleón nickname. Elsewhere the same bird has other Spanish names, such as Gavilán de sierra in Honduras and Gavilancito in Cuba.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rican list marks it M, a migrant, and the IUCN lists the species as Least Concern, with only the Puerto Rican subspecies endangered.

Photography tips

Migrating hawks ride rising warm air, so sunny mornings between 7:30 am and 1 pm give the best conditions for watching them. A raptor tower such as the one at Kekoldi lets you look across the passing flow.