Interactive Printable Field Guide

close window


Broad-winged Hawk
Buteo platypterus
Family: Accipitridae (Eagles, Kites & Hawks)

Description: A stout crow-sized hawk with a brown head, back and wings above. Their undersides are red/brown on white with extensive banding on the wings and tail. Characteristic of hawks, they have a hooked beak.

Any Broad-winged soaring hawk is also known as a buteo. They hunt visually: by spotting their prey from a perch, or actively flying overhead. Then they swoop down to capture small mammals, amphibians, reptiles or birds in their talons.

Nesting: A poorly built structure of sticks, lined with bark, may take 3 weeks to build.

Range: (April - September) Normally, hawks are solitary birds. The exception as with other neotropical migrant birds is during migration.

Until they were legally protected, their populations were endangered from human hunters who considered it a great sport to shoot these "birds of prey" or raptors particularly when they were grouped together during migration.

printable field guide compliments of www.neotropicalbirds.org

Size: 15 inches

Diet: Small live creatures such as rodents, frogs, baby birds

Habitat: Mixed woods

Call: Whistling "peeteee"

© 2003 by Trust for Wildlife. Developed with Knowledge Environments, Inc.