How to Draw a Sharp-Shinned Hawk

In this quick tutorial you'll learn how to draw a Sharp Shinned Hawk in 8 easy steps - great for kids and novice artists.

The images above represent how your finished drawing is going to look and the steps involved.

Below are the individual steps - you can click on each one for a High Resolution printable PDF version.

At the bottom you can read some interesting facts about the Sharp Shinned Hawk.

Make sure you also check out any of the hundreds of drawing tutorials grouped by category.

How to Draw a Sharp Shinned Hawk - Step-by-Step Tutorial

Step 1: Draw a curve, with two small curves that meet in a sharp point attached to one side of it. Draw a small circle under the middle of the curve.

Step 3: Draw a big curve that goes down from the middle of the body, ending in a V-shape with another curve that connects to the back of the body.

Step 7: Draw some wavy and straight lines on the wing and tail. Add dots and lines on the under belly and neck.

Interesting Facts about Sharp-Shinned Hawks

A Sharp-Shinned Hawk is a predatory hawk that lives in most parts of North America. They live in thick forests with lots of evergreens. Their nests are built high up in trees to get better views of their prey. A Sharp-Shinned Hawk is a small hawk that measures 11 to 15 inches long. Their wing-span is 23 to 27 inches long, and their tails measure 4 to 7 inches long. Sharp-Shinned Hawks are a blue gray with orange-red stripes on their chests and white underparts. They eat small birds like song birds. They will catch the bird in mid-flight and tear its head off before eating it. A female is much larger than a male.

Did you know?

• Often confused with Cooper Hawks because their bodies look so much alike. But a Sharp-Shinned Hawk is smaller.
• There are 4 species of Sharp-Shinned Hawk.
• Sharp-Shinned Hawks come back to nesting sites year after year.
• Males hunt for smaller birds like finches, wrens, and thrushes. They tend to feed the chicks when they first hatch.
• Females hunt larger birds like robins, and grouses. They feed the chicks as they adjust to being on their own.
• Sharp-Shinned Hawks will hunt food for their chicks that have just left the nest. They will shriek to the chick and the chick will swoop over and take the food from its parent in mid-flight.

Activity: Since Sharp-Shinned Hawks put such amazing mid-air passes, a fun way to simulate that for kids is a baton rely races. Find a path that would work well for a foot race. Then divide the kids in to groups of two or three depending on the length of the course. At every mile or half a mile, post a relief runner. When the first runner reaches their relief, they pass the baton. Time the race and see which team finished the race fastest.