The Sharp-shinned Hawk is widespread in Canada, but somewhat uncommon. This species is considered difficult to survey during the breeding season (Bildstein and Meyer 2000); few are recorded on Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) routes in Canada. Still, BBS results suggest an increase in abundance of about 80% since about 1970 (all Bird Conservation Regions with reasonably reliable results are displayed below). However, the overall reliability of this assessment is considered medium because the BBS covers less than half of the species' breeding population and the estimated trends within Canadian regions rely on the species' range-wide trend (i.e., the average trend across the BBS survey area, including in the United States) since there are relatively few observations of the species in any one region. BBS results from throughout North America suggest that the continental population has also increased since the mid-1960s. It is interesting to note that Crewe et al. 2016 estimated trends during migration at Hawk Watch sites across the United States and a few sites in eastern Canada, and their results suggest that numbers of Sharp-shinned Hawks have decreased during migration in the Northeast and Gulf Coast of the U.S. over the short-term (2005-2016). However, it is difficult to determine how these results reflect on the status of Sharp-shinned Hawk populations in Canada, in part because the proportion of Canadian breeders migrating through these sites is unknown. Disagreement between these migration trend results and those from the BBS may also be due to changes in migration geography or behaviour in the species (Farmer et al. 2008). Because the Sharp-shinned Hawk was persecuted and affected by DDT (Farmer et al. 2008), resulting in low levels of abundance at the start of monitoring efforts, and its historical abundance remains unknown, a specific management goal relative to 1970 has not yet been set. However, with an increasing population trend, the Sharp-shinned Hawk's current population is at an acceptable level (see Canada graph below).
Additional information on: Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) - Canadian analysis