Common black-hawk Buteogallus anthracinus

Identification Tips:

• 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.