It is native to Palearctic (from Ireland to Japan) and northern North America.

The male has a black abdomen with paired blue and yellow spots on each abdominal segment, and narrow stripes along the dorsal surface of the thorax.

In the female, the abdomen is brown with yellow or sometimes green or blue spots.

This species lacks the green thorax stripes of the southern hawker.

Female common hawkers will sometimes dive out of the sky and feign death in order to avoid copulating with males.