Immature © David Irving
Adult © Nigel Voaden
Immature © Callan Alexander
Adult © Peter Hosner

Little Sparrowhawk Accipiter minullus

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Identification

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A tiny, secretive and inconspicuous hawk that flies quickly and nimbly within woodland thickets and forest while hunting small birds, other vertebrates, and insects. It has a very distinctive white rump and two pale spots on the upper tail. Call is a distinctive high-pitched bisyllabic, down-and-upslurred “chy-lip”. Similarly-plumaged African Goshawk is much larger; Red-thighed Sparrowhawk is similar in size but prefers dense rainforest, is more rufous below, and generally lacks barring on the underside.

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