Short-tailed hawk Buteo brachyurus

Identification Tips:

• Length: 14 inches Wingspan: 35 inches
• Sexes similar
• Small buteo
• Broad rounded wings
• Hooked beak
• Short broad tail
• Wingtips help upwards while soaring
• Long wings reach end of tail at rest
• Range restricted to Florida

Adult-light morph:

• Dark upperparts
• Dark face with white chin
• White underparts and wing linings
• Dark secondaries
• Barred tail-subterminal band widest
• Immature similar to adult but face is streaked and tail bands are of equal width

Adult-dark morph:

• Entirely blackish plumage
• Whitish bases to primaries contrasting with black wing linings and secondaries
• Barred tail-subterminal band widest
• Immature similar to adult but underparts mottled with white and tail bands of equal width

Similar species:

Light morph distinctive with entirely white underparts. Dark morph is similar to other dark morph buteos but secondaries are darker than the primaries. At rest, other buteo's wingtips do not reach to the end of the tail. Dark morph Broad-winged Hawk has evenly light flight feathers while dark morph Swainson's Hawk has evenly dark flight feathers.

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