Common black-hawk Buteogallus anthracinus

Identification Tips:

• Length: 20 inches Wingspan: 48 inches
• Sexes similar
• Medium-sized hawk
• Broad rounded wings
• Hooked beak
• Short broad tail

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.

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