Besra

The besra, or besra sparrowhawk, is a medium-sized hawk, 29–36cm long, with short broad wings and a long tail for fast manoeuvring through dense vegetation, and a characteristic flap-flap-glide flight. It is like a darker shikra, with darker upperparts, a strongly barred underwing, a broader throat stripe and thin long legs and toes. The adult male has dark blue-grey upperparts. Its name comes from the Hindi word for the species. It was formerly placed in the genus Accipiter (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is a widespread resident of dense forest across southern Asia, from the Indian subcontinent to East Asia, moving into more open woodland in winter. It hunts by surprise from a hidden perch, taking lizards, dragonflies and small birds and mammals. It builds a new nest in a tree each year and lays two to five eggs. SoIB 2023 lists it as a resident forest bird in India with local movements, has too little data for a trend and rates it a Low conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).