Commentary: Untenables and clarifications about Accipiter migration, resurgence in urban habitats, and prey preferences in North America

ABSTRACT We discuss select imprecise and untenable natural history information about migration, urban habitat use, and diet presented in the technical literature about Accipiter hawks in North America. We focus primarily on challenging the claim that Sharp-shinned Hawks (Accipiter striatus) are more frequent predators of House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) than are Cooper's Hawks (A. cooperii). We urge scientists to be cognizant of the ever-changing dynamics of the predatory behavior, nesting, and migration ecology of Sharp-shinned and Cooper's hawks due to anthropogenic factors, features that are in constant flux and may not be well tracked long term or apply to the entire distributional ranges of these 2 species. RESUMEN (Spanish) Discutimos acerca de informaciones de historia natural imprecisa e insostenible acerca de la migración, del uso de hábitat urbano y la dieta presentada en la literatura técnica sobre gavilanes Accipiter en América del Norte. Principalmente nos enfocamos en cuestionar la afirmación de que el gavilán americano (Accipiter striatus) es un depredador más frecuente de gorrión común (Passer domesticus) que del gavilán de Cooper (A. cooperii). Exhortamos a los científicos a reconocer las dinámicas siempre cambiantes de comportamientos de depredación, anidamiento y ecología migratoria del gavilán americano y del gavilán de Cooper debido a factores antropogénicos, aspectos que están en flujo constante y podrían no tener buen seguimiento a largo plazo o no aplicar al rango de distribución completo de esas especies. Palabras clave: depredación, dieta, gorrión común, migración, urbanización.

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