common black hawk

The adult common black-hawk is {{cvt|43|–|53|cm|in}} long and weighs {{cvt|930|g|oz}} on average. It has very broad wings, and is mainly black or dark gray. The short tail is black with a single broad white band and a white tip. The bill is black and the legs and cere are yellow. The adults resemble zone-tailed hawks, but have fewer white bars on their tail and are larger in size.

Sexes are similar, but immature birds are dark brown above with spotting and streaks. Their underparts are buff to whitish with dark blotches, and the tail has a number of black and white bars.

File:Common Black Hawk, near Punta Uva Beach, Costa Rica.png

It formerly included the Cuban black-hawk (Buteogallus gundlachii) as a subspecies. The mangrove black hawk, traditionally considered a distinct species, is now generally considered a subspecies, B. a. subtilis, of the common black-hawk.

The common black-hawk is a breeding bird in the warmer parts of the Americas, from the Southwestern United States through Central America to Venezuela, Peru, Trinidad, and the Lesser Antilles. It is a mainly coastal, resident bird of mangrove swamps, estuaries and adjacent dry open woodland, though there are inland populations, including a migratory population in north-western Mexico and Arizona.

The bird builds a platform nest of sticks fifteen to one hundred feet above the ground in a tree, often a mangrove. Nests are often reused and tend to grow bigger. It lays one to three eggs (usually one), which are whitish with brown markings.

It has hybridized naturally with the red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) in Sonoma County, California, USA.{{cite journal |last1=Moore |first1=S |last2=Coulson |first2=J O | name-list-style = vanc |title=Intergeneric hybridization of a vagrant Common Black Hawk and a Red-shouldered Hawk |journal=Journal of Raptor Research |date=March 2020 |volume=54 |issue=1 |pages=74–80 |doi=10.3356/0892-1016-54.1.74 |doi-access=free }} This natural hybridization between different genera of hawks is rare.

It feeds mainly on crabs (especially land crabs) and crayfish, but will also take small vertebrates (such as fish, frogs, turtle hatchlings, lizards, snakes and small, young or injured birds and mammals), carrion (in form of dead fish) and eggs.{{cite web|url=https://sta.uwi.edu/fst/lifesciences/sites/default/files/lifesciences/images/Buteogallus_anthracinus%20-%20Common%20Black%20Hawk.pdf|title=Buteogallus anthracinus (Common Black Hawk) |website=Sta.uwi.edu|access-date=10 June 2022}}{{Cite web|url=https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Buteogallus_anthracinus/|title=Buteogallus anthracinus (common black hawk)|first=Jeremy|last=Steinw|website=Animal Diversity Web|access-date=10 June 2022}}{{cite book|author=Ferguson-Lees, J. |author2= Christie, D.A. |author3= Franklin, K. |author4= Mead, D. |author5= Burton, P.|year=2001|title=Raptors of the world|series=Helm Identification Guides}} The common black hawk also supplements its diet with a variety of insects, including grasshoppers, caterpillars and wasp larvae. This species is often seen soaring, with occasional lazy flaps, and has a talon-touching aerial courtship display. The call is a distinctive piping {{not a typo|spink-speenk-speenk-spink-spink-spink}}.

The common black hawk is protected in the far north of its range (in the USA) under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.

{{Reflist|refs=

{{cite journal |last=Clark |first=W.S. |year=2007 |title=Taxonomic status and distribution of Mangrove Black Hawk Buteogallus (anthracinus) subtilis |journal=Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club |volume=127 |issue=2 |pages=110–117 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40876959#page/28/mode/1up }}

{{cite web |url=https://www.fws.gov/birds/management/managed-species/migratory-bird-treaty-act-protected-species.php |title=Migratory Bird Treaty Act Protected Species | date = 2 December 2013 |access-date=28 August 2017 |publisher=U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service}}

}}

• {{cite book |last=Hilty |first=Steven L. |date=2003 |title=Birds of Venezuela |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=0-7136-6418-5 }}
• {{cite book |last=ffrench |first=Richard |last2=O'Neill |first2=John Patton |last3=Eckelberry |first3=Don R. |title=A Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago |edition=2nd |year=1991 |location=Ithaca, N.Y. |publisher=Comstock Publishing |isbn=0-8014-9792-2 }}
• {{cite book |last1=Howell |first1=Steve N.G. |last2=Webb |first2=Sophie |title=A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1995 |isbn=0-19-854012-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/guidetobirdsofme0000howe }}

{{Commons category|Buteogallus anthracinus}}

{{Wikispecies|Buteogallus anthracinus}}

• {{InternetBirdCollection|common-black-hawk-buteogallus-anthracinus|Common black hawk}}
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20001025135156/http://www.bird-stamps.org/cspecies/3016400.htm Common black hawk Stamps]}} from the Grenadines of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines at {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/19990428065259/http://www.bird-stamps.org/ bird-stamps.org]}}
• {{VIREO|common+black-hawk|Common Black-hawk}}
• {{BirdLife|22735514|Buteogallus anthracinus}}
• {{NeotropicalBirds|comblh1|Common black hawk}}
• {{IUCN_Map|22735514/169000910|Buteogallus anthracinus}}
• {{Xeno-canto species|Buteogallus|anthracinus|Common black hawk}}

{{Buteoninae}}

{{Taxonbar|from=Q1267120}}

common black hawk

Category:Native birds of the Southwestern United States

Category:Birds of Central America

Category:Birds of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Category:Birds of Trinidad and Tobago

Category:Birds of Colombia

Category:Birds of Ecuador

Category:Birds of Venezuela

Category:Migratory birds (Western Hemisphere)

common black hawk

common black hawk