Harris's Hawk Parabuteo unicinctus

Identification Tips:

• Length: 18 inches Wingspan: 43 inches
• Sexes similar
• Large, long-tailed, broad-winged hawk
• Short, dark, hooked beak with yellow cere
• White uppertail coverts

Adult:

• Chocolate-brown head, neck, back, and belly
• Chestnut underwing coverts and leg feathers
• Dark flight feathers above and below
• Chestnut upperwing has dark centers to many of the feathers
• White undertail coverts
• Black tail with white base and terminal band

Immature:

• Chocolate-brown head and neck with sparse pale streaking
• White belly streaked with chocolate-brown
• Leg feathers pale with chestnut barring
• Upperwing and underwing coverts chestnut, with dark centers to many of the feathers
• Pale bases to primaries create pale patch in outer wing
• Dark tail with narrrow white base and terminal band

Similar species:

Dark plumage, chestnut wing coverts, black tail with white base and terminal band eliminate all other hawks.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.