Japanese Sparrowhawk Accipiter gularis 日本松雀鷹
Category I. Scarce passage migrant and winter visitor to open country and closed-canopy woodland.
IDENTIFICATION
23-30 cm. The smallest Accipiter in HK, with the smaller males often identifiable on size alone. In adult plumage males are mid to dark grey above, usually have an unmarked whitish throat and a reddish wash on the underparts, often with some whitish barring. Iris deep red, more orange on immatures.
Adult females are grey-brown above and whitish below, and often have a hooded appearance (DeCandido et al. 2014). There is a narrow mesial stripe down the centre of the throat and grey-brown barring on breast and belly. Iris yellow. In level flight glides less and flaps more hurriedly than Chinese Sparrowhawk.
Sep. 2022, Paul Leader. Juvenile.
In flight appears relatively long-winged and short-tailed. Juvenile breast is streaked dark brown that is no darker than the barring on the flanks. It has a broader mesial than the adult female and narrow buff fringes to the upperparts in fresh plumage. Iris yellow.
Differences from Besra, with which it is most likely to be confused, were dealt with by Leader and Carey (1995). Japanese Sparrowhawks are shorter in wing and tail than same-sex Besras, although tail length overlaps between female Japanese and male Besra. The dark tail bars of Japanese are generally obviously narrower than the pale bars, the wing is more pointed and the primary projection longer, falling halfway down the tail. Breast streaks on juvenile Japanese are paler and browner than those on Besra. In addition, the upperpart colour of females and juveniles is more greyish.
VOCALISATIONS
The call most often heard is a short ‘keee-keee-kee-kee-kee’ that falls in pitch and volume. It is unclear, however, how this differs from similar calls given by Crested Goshawk and Besra. Note also that this is one of the phrases uttered most frequently by mimetic Orange-bellied Leafbirds.
Also, a repeated short ‘keeyoo’ that rises then falls in pitch (lower in pitch than the equivalent call of Chinese Sparrowhawk).
DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE
Japanese Sparrowhawk has been recorded in a wide variety of habitats, including marshes, fish ponds, city parks, and closed-canopy shrubland and forest. Leader and Carey (1995) stated that the 23 Japanese Sparrowhawks trapped from 1988 to 1994 were divided approximately equally between open-country and shrubland ringing sites. Approximately half of all reports in the period from 1999 are from the northwest New Territories, while the remainder are scattered throughout Hong Kong.
OCCURRENCE
For much of the year Japanese Sparrowhawk is significantly less likely to be encountered than Besra, though during its peak autumn passage period in the second half of October and first week of November the numbers reported approach those of Besra (Figure 1). Main autumn passage occurs in October and during the first half of November. Thereafter, the wintering population is established until the third week of January at least, but there appears to be a departure subsequently. It is not until the third week of March that spring migration is obvious, and main passage occurs in April.
The earliest and latest records are 16 September 2007 and 9 May 2013. The highest count is of six on migration over Mai Po NR on 5 April 2017, while the highest autumn count is five over Po Toi on 27 October 2006.
There are few records in the historical literature no doubt due to a lack of knowledge regarding field identification. A female found injured at Mid-Levels, Hong Kong Island on 2 November 1966 is considered the first adequately substantiated record. Herklots (1953) mentioned one shot in Lam Tsuen on 4 March some time before 1939, while specimens were obtained on the coast of Guangdong in spring (La Touche 1892) and autumn (Jabouille 1935).
BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET
An unobtrusive species, especially the smaller males, that is usually seen in a dashing flight through forest or open-country habitats, or occasionally soaring high with other accipiters.
No prey items have been recorded, but it has been observed attempting to take small passerines such as Eastern Yellow Wagtail, Common Kingfisher, Hair-crested Drongo, Red-whiskered Bulbuls, Eurasian Tree Sparrow and munias Lonchura spp.
RANGE & SYSTEMATICS
Breeds from southern Siberia through northern Mongolia to northeast China, Ussuriland, Kamchatka and Japan; winters in southeast China, Taiwan, Hainan, peninsula Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia (Orta and Marks 2020). In China breeds in the northeast and winters in southern coastal provinces, including Hainan and Taiwan (Liu and Chen 2020).
Three subspecies, of which two could occur in HK. Nominate gularis breeds in northeast China, the Russian Far East and Japan, while A. g. sibiricus breeds from Mongolia to east China. In addition, A. g. iwasakii is resident on the southern Ryukyus, Japan.
CONSERVATION STATUS
IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend stable.
Figure 1.
DeCandido, R., N. Chukiat, M. Siponen, K. Sutasha, A. Pierce, J. Murray and P. D. Round (2014). Flight identification and plumage descriptions of six Accipiter species on southbound migration at Khao Dinsor, Chumphon province, Thailand. BirdingAsia 21: 52-62.
Herklots, G. A. C. (1953). Hong Kong Birds. South China Morning Post, Hong Kong.
Jabouille, P. (1935). Une collection d’oiseaux du territoire du Kouang-tcheou-wan. Rev. Fr. Ornithol. 5: 34-69.
La Touche, J. D. D. (1892). On Birds collected or observed in the Vicinity of Foochow and Swatow in South-eastern China. Ibis 1892: 400-430, 477-503.
Leader, P. J. and G. J. Carey (1995). Identification of Japanese Sparrowhawk and Besra. Hong Kong Bird Report 1994: 157-169.
Liu, Y. and Y. H. Chen (eds) (2020). The CNG Field Guide to the Birds of China (in Chinese). Hunan Science and Technology Publication House, Changsha.
Orta, J. and J. S. Marks (2020). Japanese Sparrowhawk (Accipiter gularis), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.japspa1.01
