Gray Hawk

Identificazione

The gray hawk averages 46–61 cm (18–24 in) inches in length and weighs 475 g (16.8 oz). This bird has a relatively shorter wing span, but a long tail compared to the red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks. It has broad rounded wings, a hooked beak, and yellow legs. Thompson, L. (1995–2013). It is very distinctive from its smooth pale gray plumage. The tail features are in a horizontal stripped pattern in a white gray white pattern with white at the tips of the tail feathers. The tail feathers have two white bands with one being wider than the other. The sexes are similar in coloration. The adults, both male and female, have a darker gray top side with a lighter gray and white underside. The juveniles have a dark brown topside and a streaked or spotted underside and the tail feathers have numerous dark bands. The juveniles have very obvious bold facial strips and white upper tail coverts, which are the feathers at the base or start of the tail. The juveniles also have a different plumage color due to dominance and they use the dull color for camouflage.

Tassonomia

The taxonomy of the gray hawk puts it in the genus Buteo. This genus consists of hawks, which include the red-shouldered hawk, Swainson's hawk, and others. The genus Buteo is in the sub-family Buteoninae known as "the real hawks", and Buteoninae is within the family of Accipitridae. Accipitridae consist of hawks, old world vultures, kites, harriers, and eagles. This family is within the order Accipitriformes which are the diurnal (active during the day) birds of prey.<p>The species was originally described by Hermann Schlegel in 1862 as Asturina plagiata. The AOU listed A. plagiata with the common name "Mexican goshawk" in the first four editions of the Check-List of North American Birds, from 1886–1931. By the 1957 fifth edition, it had been merged into Buteo nitidis; but by the 1998 seventh edition all of B. nitidis was separated into the resurrected genus Asturina.<p>In 2003, Riesing et al. published results of research on nucleotide sequences within the mitochondrial nd6 gene and pseudo-control-region for all species of Buteo and several related species. Among other findings, they recommended that Asturina be merged into Buteo, and concluded that A. nitidis plagiatus was sufficiently different from A. n. nitidis and A. n. costaricensis to be considered a separate species. In 2005, the AOC's Committee on Classification and Nomenclature – North America decided to follow the recommendation to merge the genera, but was not convinced about splitting the species.<p>The gray hawk was originally Asturina nitida but controversy existed between ornithologists on whether or not this species was closely enough related enough to put it in the Buteo, but chromosomal mapping in 2013 has proved that the gray hawk is within the Buteoninae. Researchers such as de Oliveira, Tagliarini, dos Santos, O'Brien, and Ferguson-Smith proposed in 2011 that the gray hawk should be two different species, because of a slight difference in plumage color and a difference in alarm calls documented in the northern and southern distributional gap in Costa Rica. They suggest that the species is better split into the gray-lined hawk (Buteo nitidus) and the gray hawk (Buteo plagiatus), The American Ornithological Society eventually recognized the split.

Nome scientifico

Buteo plagiatus

Autorità

(Schlegel, 1862)

Ordine

Accipitriformi

Famiglia

Accipitridae

Genere

Buteo

Areale e habitat

The gray hawk's range is in Northern and Central America, from southern New Mexico, southern Arizona, to central Texas, through Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, to the northern part of Costa Rica.<p>Its habitat within this range consists of forest edges, river edges, clear cuts, savanna, and agricultural land (4). In their tropical range of the Amazon they tend to prefer a more dry second growth forest.

Migrazione

Migratori completi

Comportamento

Comportamento migratorio: Migratori completi.

Conservazione

Tendenza della popolazione: stabile.

Tendenza della popolazione

stabile