Common Black-Hawk (us-RGV)
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Contents |
Regional Information
Range, Abundance, and Seasonal Variations
Directions and Maps
General Information
Size
Length: 43-53cm (??in), Wingspan: ??cm (??in), Weight: 930g
Field Marks
Medium-sized hawk with broad rounded wings. Short tail is black with a single broad white band and a white tip. The hooked bill is black and the legs and cere are yellow. Sexes similar. Adult: Entirely dark plumage. yellow legs and cere. Black tail with broad white band and thin white tip. Small white base of primaries-not always visible. Immature: Dark upperparts. Buffy patches visible on upper surface of primaries. Buffy underparts streaked with brown. Dark face with buffy supercilium and cheek. Numerous thin bands on tail with broad dark terminal band.
Similar species
Adults are distinctive with the very dark plumge and broad white band in the tail. Turkey and Black Vultures and Zone-tailed Hawks are similarly dark but lack the broad white band in the tail. Immatures have buffy patches at the base of the primaries.
Sounds
The call of Common Black Hawk is a distinctive piping spink-speenk-speenk-spink-spink-spink.
Feeding & Behavior
Feeds mainly on crabs, but will also take small vertebrates and eggs. Often seen soaring, with occasional lazy flaps, and has a talon-touching aerial courtship display.
Habitat & Nesting
Mainly coastal bird of mangrove swamps, estuaries and adjacent dry open woodland, which builds a large stick nest in a mangrove tree, and usually lays one dark-blotched whitish egg.
Range
Resident breeding bird in the tropical New World, from the southwestern US through Central America to Peru, Trinidad and the Lesser Antilles.
Resources
