Roadside hawk

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Roadside hawk
In Goiás, Brazil

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Accipitriformes
Family: Accipitridae
Subfamily: Buteoninae
Genus: Rupornis
Kaup, 1844
Species:
R. magnirostris
Binomial name
Rupornis magnirostris
(Gmelin, JF, 1788)
Synonyms

Buteo magnirostris

Roadside Hawk, Palo Verde Nat'l. Park, Costa Rica
R. m. griseocauda eating speckled racer, Belize
Immature, the Pantanal, Brazil

The roadside hawk (Rupornis magnirostris) is a relatively small

monotypic genus Rupornis instead of Buteo.[2]

Taxonomy

The roadside hawk was

Falco and coined the binomial name Falco magnirostris.[3] Gmelin based his description on the "Épervier à gros bec de Cayenne" that had been described and illustrated in 1770 by the French polymath Comte de Buffon in his multi-volume Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux .[4][5] The roadside hawk is now the only species placed in the genus Rupornis that was introduced in 1844 by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup.[6][7] The genus name combines the Ancient Greek rhupos meaning "dirt" or "filth" with ornis meaning "bird". The specific epithet magnirostris combines the Latin magnus meaning "great" with -rostris meaning "billed".[8]

Twelve subspecies are recognised. Their distributions are as follow:[7][9]

Description

The roadside hawk is 31–41 cm (12–16 in) long and weighs 250–300 g (8.8–10.6 oz).[10] Males are about 20% smaller than females, but otherwise the sexes are similar.[11] In most subspecies, the lower breast and underparts are barred brown and white, and the tail has four or five grey bars. Twelve subspecies are usually recognised and there is significant plumage variation between these. Depending on the subspecies involved, the roadside hawk is mainly brown or grey. It is fairly common to observe a touch of rufous (i.e., a light reddish-brown) on the bird's wings, especially when seen in flight.[12] Its call is a very high-pitched piercing squeak. The eyes of adult roadside hawks are whitish or yellow. As suggested by its specific name, its beak is relatively large.[11]

The roadside hawk is the smallest hawk in the widespread genus Buteo;[13] although Ridgway's hawk and the white-rumped hawk are scarcely larger.[11] In flight, the relatively long tail and disproportionately short wings of the roadside hawk are distinctive. It frequently soars, but does not hover.[11]

Distribution and habitat

Roadside hawk calls
Recorded in Brazil
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The roadside hawk is common throughout its range: from Mexico through

ecosystems in its range. It is also an urban bird, and is possibly the most common species of hawk seen in various cities throughout its range—or perhaps just the most conspicuous one, as it becomes aggressive when nesting and has been recorded attacking humans passing near the nest.[14][15]

Behavior and ecology

Breeding

The bulky stick nest is lined with leaves and placed near the top of a tree. The clutch of one or two eggs is incubated for around 37 days, beginning after the first egg is laid.[16]

Food and feeding

The roadside hawk's diet consists mainly of

Mixed-species feeding flocks it encounters when hunting in open cerrado habitat are not particularly wary of it: they watch it lest the hawk come too close, but consider them hardly more of a threat than the diminutive American kestrel.[18]

Hunting

Roadside hawks regularly hunt using the "

still hunting" method while patiently waiting for prey. While perch hunting, a hawk will drop or glide down from an elevated position to capture their prey.[19] Though most attempts are successful through this technique, it is crucial to consider that their style of hunting varies in success depending on the habitat they explore.[20]

References

  1. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T22695880A168800737.en
    . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. South American Classification Committee (2011) Revise generic boundaries in the Buteo group.
    Accessed 16 June 2011
  3. ^ Gmelin, Johann Friedrich (1788). Systema naturae per regna tria naturae : secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1, Part 1 (13th ed.). Lipsiae [Leipzig]: Georg. Emanuel. Beer. p. 282.
  4. ^ Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc de (1770). Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux (in French). Vol. 1. Paris: De l'Imprimerie Royale. pp. 237–238.
  5. Daubenton, Louis-Jean-Marie (1765–1783). Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle
    . Vol. 5. Paris: De L'Imprimerie Royale. Plate 464.
  6. ^ Kaup, Johann Jakob (1844). Classification der Säugethiere und Vögel (in German). Darmstadt: Carl Wilhelm Leske. p. 120. Retrieved 28 December 2022 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  7. ^
    Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (2023). "Hoatzin, New World vultures, Secretarybird, raptors"
    . IOC World Bird List. 13.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
  8. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4
    .
  9. ISBN 978-0-7136-8695-1
    .
  10. ^ "Roadside Hawk". oiseaux-birds.
  11. ^
    ISBN 0-7136-8026-1
    .
  12. ISBN 85-85015-07-1
    .
  13. ^ Bierregaard, Richard O.; Boesman, Peter F.D.; Kirwan, Guy M. (4 March 2020). "Roadside Hawk Rupornis magnirostris". Birds of the World. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
  14. ^ BirdLife species factsheet for Buteo magnirostris
  15. ISBN 978-85-61368-00-5
    .
  16. ISBN 978-84-87334-15-3
    .
  17. doi:10.1590/S0101-81752007000300022
    .
  18. PMID 11188872
    .
  19. ISBN 978-0-8014-6611-3.[page needed
    ]
  20. JSTOR 4164283
    .

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Roadside_hawk&oldid=1229413664"