Accipiter

Northern goshawk Accipiter gentilis, photographed by Elaine R. Wilson.

Belongs within: Accipitridae.
Contains: Circus.

Accipiter is a cosmopolitan genus containing the goshawks and related predators of small birds and mammals. Accipiter species have long shanks, long tails and round, broad wings, and are fast, agile fliers. Molecular data support a close relationship between Accipiter and the harriers of the genus Circus; indeed, the phylogenetic analysis by Jetz et al. (2012) suggests that the latter may even be nested within Accipiter. In this phylogeny, Circus is placed as sister to a clade of relatively large accipiters, including the northern goshawk A. gentilis, the bicoloured hawk A. bicolor and Cooper's hawk A. cooperii. A basal clade includes such species as the collared sparrowhawk A. cirrocephalus, Chinese sparrowhawk A. gularis and besra A. virgatus; members of this clade, found in Asia and Australasia, are dark above (including on the crown) and are often rufous and/or barred on the breast.

<==Accipiter Brisson 1760 CC10 (see below for synonymy)
    |--+--A. soloensis JT12
    |  `--+--A. cirrocephalus (Vieillot 1817) JT12, WS48 (see below for synonymy)
    |     `--+--A. gularis JT12
    |        |    |--A. g. gularis I92
    |        |    `--A. g. iwasakii Mishima 1962 I92
    |        `--A. virgatus JT12
    `--+--+--Circus JT12
       |  `--+--A. gentilis (Linnaeus 1758) JT12, M02 (see below for synonymy)
       |     |    |--A. g. gentilis I92
       |     |    |--A. g. atricapillus A68
       |     |    |--A. g. fujiyamae (Swann & Hartert 1923) I92
       |     |    `--A. g. schvedowi I92
       |     `--+--A. bicolor JT12
       |        `--A. cooperii JT12 [=Falco cooperi Scl66; incl. F. stanleyii Scl66]
       `--+--+--A. tachiro JT12
          |  `--+--A. imitator JT12
          |     `--A. novaehollandiae (Gmelin 1788) JT12, WS48 (see below for synonymy)
          |          |--A. n. novaehollandiae WS48
          |          |--A. n. cooktowni (Mathews 1912) (see below for synonymy) WS48
          |          `--A. n. griseogularis J06
          `--+--*A. nisus (Linnaeus 1758) CC10, JT12, M02 [=Falco nisus M02]
             |    |--A. n. nisus I92
             |    `--A. n. nisosimilis (Tickell 1833) I92
             `--+--+--A. erythronemius Gray 1848 BKB15, Scl66 (see below for synonymy)
                |  `--A. rufiventris BKB15
                `--A. striatus BKB15
                     |--A. s. striatus SWK87
                     |--A. s. velox A68
                     `--A. s. venator SWK87

Accipiter incertae sedis:
  A. albogularis JT12
  A. badius JT12
  A. brachyurus JT12
  A. brevipes JT12
  ‘Nisus’ brutus Sch66
  A. butleri JT12
  A. castanilius Bp. 1853 Scl66
  A. chilensis JT12
  A. chionogaster (Kaup 1851) JT12, Scl66 [=Nisus chionogaster Scl66]
  A. collaris Sclater 1860 Scl66
  A. erythrauchen JT12
  A. erythropus JT12
  A. fasciatus (Vigors & Horsfield 1827) CC10 (see below for synonymy)
    |--A. f. fasciatus CC10
    |--A. f. didimus (Mathews 1912) [=Astur fasciatus didimus] WS48
    |--‘Astur approximans’ insularis Sarasin 1913 S13
    |--A. f. natalis M03
    `--A. f. vigilax CC10
  A. francesiae JT12 [=Nisus francesii Sch66]
    |--A. f. francesii USDI77
    `--A. f. pusillus USDI77
  A. fuscus [=Falco fuscus; incl. F. dubius, F. pennsylvanicus, F. velox] Scl66
  A. griseiceps JT12
  A. gundlachi JT12
    |--A. g. gundlachi HSS13
    `--A. g. wileyi HSS13
  A. haplochrous (Sclater 1859) JT12, S13 [=Astur haplochrous S13]
  A. henicogrammus JT12
  A. henstii JT12
  ‘Nisus’ lantzii Sch66
  A. luteoschistaceus JT12
  A. madagascariensis JT12 [=Nisus madagascariensis Sch66]
  A. melanochlamys JT12
  A. melanoleucus JT12
  A. meyerianus JT12 [=A. fasciatus meyerianus CC10]
  A. minullus JT12
  ‘Nisus’ morelii [=Nisuoides morelii] Sch66
  A. nanus JT12
  A. ovampensis JT12
  A. pectoralis [=Falco pectoralis] Scl66
  A. pileatus [=Falco pileatus] Scl66
  A. poliocephalus JT12
  A. poliogaster JT12
  A. princeps JT12
  A. rhodogaster JT12
  A. rufitorques JT12 [=A. fasciatus rufitorques CC10]
  ‘Astur’ sharpei R87a
  A. tinus [=Falco tinus, Nisus tinus; incl. Accipiter fontanieri] Scl66
  A. torquatus R87a [=Falco (Urospizias) torquatus R87a, Astur torquatus S13]
  A. toussenelii JT12
  A. trinotatus JT12
  A. ventralis Sclater 1866 Scl66

Accipiter Brisson 1760 CC10 [incl. Astur Lacépède 1799 CC10, Leucospiza Kaup 1844 CC10, Nisus Lacépède 1799 B94, Paraspizias Mathews 1915 CC10, Urospiza kaup 1844 CC10; Asturinae, Nisinae]

Accipiter cirrocephalus (Vieillot 1817) JT12, WS48 [=Sparvius cirrhocephalus CC10, *Paraspizias cirrhocephalus CC10; incl. Astur cirrocephalus broomei Mathews 1912 WS48]

Accipiter erythronemius Gray 1848 JT12, Scl66 [=Nisus fringillarius erythronemius Scl66; incl. N. striatus Scl66]

Accipiter fasciatus (Vigors & Horsfield 1827) CC10 [=Astur fasciatus CC10; incl. Astur approximans Vigors & Horsfield 1827 CC10, Astur cruentus Gould 1843 CC10, Accipiter fasciatus cruentus WS48, Astur fasciatus mackayi Mathews 1912 CC10, Astur maculosus Coles 1897 CC10, Falco radiatus Latham 1801 CC10, WS48, Accipiter radiatus SJ85, Astur radiatus R87b, Erythrotriorchis radiatus WS48, *Urospiza radiata CC10, Urospiza fasciata rennelliana Kinghorn 1937 CC10, Erythrotriorchis rufotibia Campbell 1911 WS48]

Accipiter gentilis (Linnaeus 1758) JT12, M02 [=Falco gentilis M02; incl. Ac. gentilis brevidactylus Mourer-Chauviré 1975 M02, F. palumbarius Linnaeus 1758 CC10, L58, *Astur palumbarius CC10]

Accipiter novaehollandiae (Gmelin 1788) JT12, WS48 [=Falco novaehollandiae CC10, *Leucospiza novaehollandiae CC10]

Accipiter novaehollandiae cooktowni (Mathews 1912) [=Astur clarus cooktowni; incl. Astur novaehollandiae alboides Mathews 1912] WS48

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[A68] Ashmole, N. P. 1968. Body size, prey size, and ecological segregation in five sympatric tropical terns (Aves: Laridae). Systematic Zoology 17 (3): 292–304.

[B94] Bock, W. J. 1994. History and nomenclature of avian family-group names. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 222: 1–281.

[BKB15] Burleigh, J. G., R. T. Kimball & E. L. Braun. 2015. Building the avian tree of life using a large-scale, sparse supermatrix. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 84: 53–63.

[CC10] Checklist Committee (OSNZ). 2010. Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands, and the Ross Dependency, Antarctica 4^th ed. Ornithological Society of New Zealand and Te Papa Press: Wellington.

[HSS13] Hirschfeld, E., A. Swash & R. Still. 2013. The World's Rarest Birds. Princeton University Press: Princeton (New Jersey).

[I92] Iwahashi, J. (ed.) 1992. Reddo Deeta Animaruzu: a pictorial of Japanese fauna facing extinction. JICC: Tokyo.

[JT12] Jetz, W., G. H. Thomas, J. B. Joy, K. Hartmann & A. Ø. Mooers. 2012. The global diversity of birds in space and time. Nature 491: 444–448.

[J06] Johnstone, R. E. 2006. The birds of Gag Island, Western Papuan islands, Indonesia. Records of the Western Australian Museum 23 (2): 115–132.

[L58] Linnaeus, C. 1758. Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata. Laurentii Salvii: Holmiae.

[M02] Mlíkovský, J. 2002. Cenozoic Birds of the World. Part 1: Europe. Ninox Press: Praha.

[M03] Morcombe, M. 2003. Field Guide to Australian Birds 2^nd ed. Steve Parish Publishing.

[R87a] Ramsay, E. P. 1887a. List of Western Australian birds collected by Mr. Cairn, and Mr. W. H. Boyer-Bower, at Derby and its vicinity, with remarks on the species. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, series 2, 1 (4): 1085–1100.

[R87b] Ramsay, E. P. 1887b. Descriptions of Australian birds' eggs. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, series 2, 1 (4): 1141–1152, pl. 19.

[S13] Sarasin, F. 1913. Die Vögel Neu-Caledoniens und der Loyalty-Inseln. In: Sarasin, F., & J. Roux (eds) Nova Caledonia: Forschungen in Neu-Caledonian und auf den Loyalty-Inseln. A. Zoologie vol. 1 pt 1 pp. 1–78, pls 1–3. C. W. Kreidels Verlag: Wiesbaden.

[Sch66] Schlegel, H. 1866. Communication from, on mammals and birds collected in Madagascar. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1866: 419–426.

[Scl66] Sclater, P. L. 1866. On a new species of the genus Accipiter from New Granada. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1866: 302–304.

[SWK87] Snyder, N. F. R., J. W. Wiley & C. B. Kepler. 1987. The Parrots of Luquillo: Natural history and conservation of the Puerto Rican parrot. Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology: Los Angeles.

[SJ85] Storr, G. M., & R. E. Johnstone. 1985. Field Guide to the Birds of Western Australia 2^nd ed. Western Australian Museum: Perth (Australia).

[USDI77] USDI (United States Department of the Interior). 1977. Endangered and threatened wildlife and plants—republication of list of species. Federal Register 42: 36420–36431.

[WS48] Whittell, H. M., & D. L. Serventy. 1948. A systematic list of the birds of Western Australia. Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery of Western Australia, Special Publication 1: 1–126.

Last updated: 5 August 2019.