Eurasian sparrowhawk

The Eurasian sparrowhawk, Accipiter nisus, also called the northern sparrowhawk, is a small bird of prey in the hawk family Accipitridae found throughout temperate and subtropical regions of the Old World, from Europe and West Asia to Siberia. It shows strong sexual dimorphism: males have slate-grey upperparts and finely red-barred underparts and measure 29 to 34 centimeters long with a 59 to 64 centimeter wingspan, while females are considerably larger, up to 25 percent longer and nearly twice the weight, with dark or greyish-brown upperparts and brown-barred underparts, reaching 35 to 41 centimeters long with a wingspan of 67 to 80 centimeters. Northern populations migrate south for winter while southern populations remain resident. The species is a specialized predator of woodland birds, succeeding in only about 10 percent of its hunting attempts, with males typically taking smaller birds such as tits and finches and females larger prey such as thrushes and starlings; it nearly went extinct in parts of its range in the mid-20th century due to pesticides but recovered after bans in the 1970s and is now listed as Least Concern.