Notes on the American Sparrow Hawk

Abstract

The American Sparrow Hawk (Falco sparverius) occurs abundantly throughout the nation and has been well known to science for many years. In spite of this familiarity, knowledge of its natural history is rather sketchy. The accounts in the literature, with few excep- tions, are primarily concerned with distribution records, nesting dates, and food habits, plus scattered descriptions of behavior (see Friedmann, 1950: 726-739). The present study was undertaken to investigate some of the less well known aspects of the life of the Sparrow Hawk.