White-tailed hawk
Buteo albicaudatus
Identification Tips:
- Sexes similar
- Large buteo
- Long, broad, rounded wings appear somewhat pointed at tip
- Wings extend at least to tip of tail at rest
- Hooked beak
- Broad tail
- Yellow legs and cere
- Sometimes hovers in flight
- Wings held in dihedral
Adult:
- White tail with wide black subterminal band
- White underparts, wing linings, and rump
- Faintly barred primaries darker than secondaries
- Dark face
- Rufous wash on scapulars and coverts
Subadult:
- Tail grayish with black subterminal band
- Dark belly and white chest
- Dark underwing coverts
Immature:
- Dark underparts and wing linings
- Faintly barred flight feathers
- Pale faintly barred tail
- White upper and undertail coverts
- Vague white patch in center of breast
Similar species:
Adults are distinctive with white underparts and a white tail with a black
subterminal band. Immatures are similar to other dark buteos: Harlan's,
Rough-legged, Ferruginous, and Swainson's. The tail of the immature
White-tailed Hawk is pale with a thin, faint bars and lacks the wider
subterminal band of the other species. The immature also has distinctive
white upper and undertail coverts.