Gray Hawk

The Gray Hawk is a small, elegant member of the buteo group restricted mostly to riparian woodland along the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, Mexico, and Central America. Compared to bulkier buteos it looks almost accipiter-like in shape, with a slimmer body and proportionately longer tail, and it is closely tied to the cottonwood-willow gallery forests and mesquite bosques it hunts within.

Body feathers show fine, even gray barring above and below, giving the plumage a soft, pale look overall rather than the bolder patterning of most buteos. Tail feathers are black crossed by three or four narrow, crisp white bands, appearing narrower and more numerous than the wide single or double bands seen on many other hawks of similar size. Wings are broad but more rounded and less deep-chested than a Red-tailed or Broad-winged Hawk, and overall the feathers read paler and finer-patterned than most sympatric raptors.

Adults show pale gray upperparts finely barred with darker gray, and underparts finely barred gray and white, producing an overall soft, silvery appearance in good light. Juveniles are quite different, being brown above with heavy streaking below and a brown tail crossed by numerous dark bands, only acquiring the adult barred pattern after their first full molt. There is little seasonal plumage variation once adult plumage is attained.

Gray Hawks are closely associated with riparian corridors of cottonwood and willow, as well as mesquite bosques, in the far southern United States (Arizona, southern Texas) south through Mexico into Central America. Most of the range is occupied year-round, though the small population at the northern edge of the range may withdraw farther south outside the breeding season.

This hawk hunts with quick, agile flight through and along wooded edges, taking lizards, small birds, and large insects, often still-hunting from a low, concealed perch before a short dash. Nests are built in tall riparian trees, typically cottonwoods, and the species gives a distinctive high, plaintive whistled call, often the first clue to its presence in dense streamside cover.