Levant Sparrowhawk

Accipiter brevipes

This is bird with a restricted distribution to the north of the Caspian and Black Seas with a scattering of breeding sites in Turkey, Greece and the Balkans. It is a bit longer winged than the Sparrowhawk and, unlike that species, is a migrant into Africa - where its range is very poorly known as there are so many other Accipiter hawks about.

The narrow and longer wings with "dipped in ink" wing-tips are best distinguishing feature. Like all hawks this is a bird eater at times but it specialises in quartering the ground and taking lizards and large insects. Unlike most Accipiters not very marked sexual dimorphism

An Accipiter you are unlikely to come across - unless you are in the right place at the right time.

Length	350 mm
Closed wing	240 mm
Weight	200 gms

A Bird On! Sketch by Chris Mead
Copyright © 1996 by Jacobi Jayne & Company and Chris Mead