Harris's Hawk

First year Harris's Hawk in flight, Vizcaino Peninsula, Baja California Sur, Mexico, 29 Sep 2005.

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Harris's Hawk taking flight

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Reproduction
8. Conservation Status
9. Other Names

A handsome hawk of the arid Southwest, the Harris's Hawk hunts cooperatively in pairs or trios. The hawks surround their prey, flush it for another to catch, or take turns chasing it.

Cool Facts

• The Harris's Hawk nests in social units that vary from an adult pair to as many as seven individuals, including both adults and immatures.

• Although most North American Harris?s Hawks nest in spring (March through June), some females will lay second and even third clutches after their first breeding attempt fails or succeeds. Eggs or young have been recorded in every month of the year.

• Cooperatively hunting groups of Harris's Hawks are more successful at capturing prey than individuals hunting alone. Groups of five hawks are the most successful.

Description

• Size: 46-59 cm (18-23 in)
• Wingspan: 103-124 cm (41-49 in)
• Weight: 515-1630 g (18.18-57.54 ounces)

Medium-sized to large hawk. Dark overall. White rump and undertail. White tip to dark tail. Chestnut-red thighs and shoulders. Legs and bare face skin yellow.

Sex Differences

Sexes look alike, female larger.

Immature

Juvenile similar to adults, except underparts streaked with cream or buffy coloration; amount of light color variable. Rufous patches reduced and dullish. Underwing has whitish primaries, conspicuous in flight. Tail crossed with many fine dusky bars; base and tip white.

Similar Species

• Common Black-Hawk is chunkier, has a shorter tail, and lacks rufous.
• Northern Harrier has white rump, and has longer and thinner wings and tail.

Sound

Call a prolonged, harsh "irrr."

Range

Range Map

© 2004 Cornell Lab of Ornithology

About the map

Summer Range

Resident in southern Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Also southward to South America.

Habitat

Arid lowland scrub, arid montane scrub, tropical deciduous forest, low seasonally wet grassland, recently in some suburbs of desert cities.

Reproduction

Condition at Hatching

Helpless and covered in down.

Conservation Status

Declining in the United States.

Other Names

Buse de Harris. (French)
Peuco castellano. (Spanish)
Bay-winged Hawk. (English)

Sources used to construct this page:

Bednarz, J. C. 1995. Harris? Hawk (Parabuteo unicinctus). In The Birds of North America, No. 146 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, and The American Ornithologists? Union, Washington, D.C.