Gray Hawk
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| Buteo nitidus (Latham, 1790) |
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Asturina nitida |
The Gray Hawk Buteo nitidus is a smallish raptor found in open country and forest edges. It is sometimes placed in the genus Asturina as Asturina nitida. It breeds from the southwestern USA and Mexico south to Bolivia, Brazil and central Argentina. It is fairly common on Trinidad, and there have been recent sightings on Tobago.
The nest is of sticks and built high in a tree. The usual clutch is one to three, usually two white eggs, pale blue with red markings. The young take about 6 weeks to fledging.
The Gray Hawk is 46-61 cm in length and weighs 475 g. The adult has a pale grey body, the tail is black with three white bands and the legs are orange.
Immature birds have dark brown upperparts, a pale-banded brown tail, brown-spotted white underparts and a brown streaked buff head and neck. This species is quite short-winged, and has a fast agile flight for a Buteo.
The population from southeastern Pacific Costa Rica to Brazil and Argentina has fine white barring on the upperparts and is sometimes split as the separate species Gray-lined Hawk, Buteo nitidus, with northern birds becoming Buteo plagiatus, but the vocalisations are identical.
The Gray Hawk feeds mainly on lizards and snakes, but will also take small mammals, birds and frogs. It usually sits on an open high perch from which it swoops on its prey, but will also hunt from a low glide. The call is a shrill whistled kleee-ooo.
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[edit] References
- Birds of Venezuela by Hilty, ISBN 0-7136-6418-5
- ffrench, Richard (1991). A Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago, 2nd edition, Comstock Publishing. ISBN 0-8014-9792-2.
- A guide to the birds of Costa Rica by Stiles and Skutch ISBN 0-8014-9600-4
- BirdLife International (2004). Asturina nitida. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 05 December 2006. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is of least concern
