Common Black Hawk

The Common Black Hawk is a heavyset, short-tailed hawk of the genus Buteogallus, a group of broad-winged American raptors tied closely to water. It ranges from the desert Southwest of the United States south through Mexico and Central America into northern South America, almost always found within sight of a stream, river, or coastal wetland. Its blocky silhouette, broad paddle-shaped wings, and overwhelmingly dark plumage make it one of the more distinctive raptors within its narrow riparian habitat niche.

Body and covert feathers are a deep, slightly glossy black-brown with little pattern, giving found feathers an unusually uniform, sooty look compared to the barring typical of most hawks. The most diagnostic feathers are from the tail: broad, black rectrices crossed by a single wide white band set well before the tip, with a narrow white terminal edge beyond it. Flight feathers are broad and rounded rather than pointed, consistent with a soaring, low-flapping hawk rather than a fast-pursuit species. This single-banded black tail separates the species from superficially similar dark raptors such as Zone-tailed Hawk, which shows multiple narrow pale tail bands, and from vultures, whose flight feathers are more ragged-edged and flexible.

Adults are blackish-brown to black over the entire body, with a yellow-orange cere and legs providing the only strong color contrast. Juveniles look quite different: heavily streaked dark brown and buff below, with a pale head and a tail crossed by several narrow dark bands rather than the adult's single broad one. The transition to adult plumage occurs gradually over a couple of years through successive molts, with the single white tail band becoming cleaner and more sharply defined as birds mature.

This species favors wooded rivers, streams, mangrove swamps, and coastal wetlands, rarely straying far from water. Its range extends from the lowland Southwest United States (Arizona, limited areas of New Mexico and Texas) through the length of Mexico and Central America to northern South America. Most populations are resident year-round, though the small breeding population at the northern edge of the range in the U.S. withdraws south for the winter.

Common Black Hawks hunt by perching quietly over water and dropping onto crabs, fish, frogs, and other small aquatic and semi-aquatic prey, occasionally wading into shallows. Flight is typically low and heavy, alternating slow flaps with short glides, though birds will soar on broad wings over their territory. Nests are bulky stick platforms built high in a tall tree standing near or over water, and the species gives a loud, shrill, whistled call series, most often around the nest site.