The Japanese sparrowhawk (Tachyspiza gularis) is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as eagles, buzzards and harriers.

The Japanese sparrowhawk was formally described in 1845 by the zoologists Coenraad Jacob Temminck and Hermann Schlegel in Philipp Franz von Siebold's Fauna Japonica.

In 2024 a comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study of the Accipitridae confirmed earlier work that had shown that the genus was polyphyletic.

The genus Tachyspiza was resurrected to accommodate the Japanese sparrowhawk together with 26 other species that had previously been placed in Accipiter.

[2] During migration and wintering, they can be seen in villages, and open areas where woodlands and shrubs mix with marshes and fields.

[2] The species can generally be found at its breeding grounds in eastern Russia, eastwards to Sakhalin, the Korean peninsula, Japan, and Northeastern China.

Tachyspiza gularis sibiricus is migratory and breeds from Mongolia to eastern China and is thought to winter in southeast Asia and Indonesia.

[11] Alternatively, Tachyspiza g. iwasakii is sedentary and lives solely in evergreen subtropical forests[3] on the South Ryukyu Islands of Japan.

Other reported sounds are a mewing key-key and a shrill kee-bick,[19] as well as a kwu between mates prior to nesting.

[20] The Japanese sparrowhawk hunts in clearings by surprising prey from perches and by chasing in flight.

[2][3] It often hunts small forest passerines like sparrows, buntings, warblers, tits, nuthatches, and sometimes larger birds like magpies and pigeons.

[2] Individuals find a partners and begin with a pre-nesting display whereby both members make kwu sounds while bowing their heads and lifting their tails on a perch.

[20] They also perform aerial displays that include undulating sky dances, high-circling and slow flapping.

[2][3] The incubation period lasts between 25 and 28 days, and chicks fledge in June in Japan and August in Siberia.

[21] However, it is a class II protected species in China[14] Moreover, the A. g. iwasakii subspecies is classified as endangered in the Red Data Book of the Japan Ministry of the Environment due to declines in nesting spots and breeding success, but its estimated population size and life history parameters remain poorly understood.