I had the pure dumb luck to stumble across a pair of these raptors in the throes of courtship. I followed their “singing” and spotted them in a dense part of a forest that surrounds a lake.
Sharp-shinned Hawks prey mostly on small birds including songbirds like sparrows and warblers and their nestlings, small shorebirds, quail, and doves. They also eat mice and voles.
Their young eat small prey early on in their lives and larger prey as they get older. This is partly die to the difference in size between the male and female; the female is up to 33% larger than the male and can therefore hunt larger prey. The male brings food to the family early on until the young can be left behind. Females being larger can catch larger prey.
The young learn to hunt by catching prey passed to them by their parents while in flight. Unlike owls, sharp-shinned hawks can’t eat feathers so they pluck their catch before eating it.
The oldest recorded Sharp-shinned Hawk was a male, and at least 12 years, 2 months old when he was recaptured and re-released during banding operations in Minnesota in 2009. He was originally banded in the same state in 1999.*
*Cornell Lab of Ornithology