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| adult male White-breasted Hawk, Honduras, December 2011 |
White-breasted Hawk is a little known raptor from the Central American pine-oak forest. Officially (
AOU) still a subspecies of the Sharp-shinned Hawk, most authors agree that this form should really be its own species. Currently, ten subspecies of Sharp-shinned Hawk (
Accipiter striatus) are recognized, which can be subdivided in three main groups: the
striatus (Sharp-shinned) group which contains four subspecies on the North American mainland and three island ssp; the Central American
chionogaster (White-breasted) group with just one subspecies; and the
erythronemius (Rufous-thighed) group with two South American subspecies (Bildstein & Meyer 2000). Future DNA work is likely to result in a split into at least three species: Sharp-shinned Hawk; White-breasted Hawk; and Rufous-thighed Hawk.
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| tail of adult male White-breasted Hawk, Honduras, December 2011 |
We caught this adult male while banding in Monte Uyuca (Honduras) last week. We have been banding there every month for two years now, and regularly see White-breasted Hawks around the net lanes. This was the first time we caught it here. Note (browner) retained outer rectrices from a previous molt generation.
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| Upperside wing ad male White-breasted Hawk, Honduras, December 2011 |
Upperside wing shot. Note the difference in (browner) retained primary coverts compared to (slaty) fresher secondary coverts.
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| adult male White-breasted Hawk, Honduras, December 2011 |
After we released the bird, it perched in a nearby tree. It may be worth noting that the tibial feathers appear white, like the rest of the underparts. Bildstein & Meyer (2000) describe light ochraceous-buff tibial feathering for the adult White-breasted Hawk...
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| juvenile male Sharp-shinned Hawk, Honduras, December 2011 |
Another first for the site was this juvenile male Sharp-shinned Hawk. We caught it two days later during the same pulse.
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| juvenile male Sharp-shinned Hawk, Honduras, December 2011 |
White-breasted Hawk is a resident species here in Honduras; Sharp-shinned Hawk is a winter visitor to the region.
References
Bildstein, Keith L. and Ken Meyer. 2000. Sharp-shinned Hawk (
Accipiter striatus),
The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab
of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online:
http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/482
3 comments:
Hi John
I have just come across your blog and I will immediately be subscribing to it. I enjoyed your blog on the White-breasted Hawk, as it is a species I studied for 8 years in Celaque N.P. in Honduras and near Perquin in El Salvador. I published a paper on the life history of this species in Ornthologia Neotropical in 2010. I look forward to hearing more about what you find, especially as your more recent posts have included many species that I never caught up with in all my visits to Honduras.
Tom Jenner
I am not a birder to start out...but about 4 years ago a pair of these white-breasted hawks killed a rabbit on the deck of my house... I live in a residential neighborhood in erie pennsylvania. I heard alot of noise on my deck from my kitchen window and went to see what it was and saw 2 big birds flapping like crazy on my deck..i opened the door and they flew in a willow tree in another close yard and i saw the rabbit laying on the deck.. i got my binoculars out and watched them for about 10 min. looking back at my house. i could see them perfectly. I finally went to bed cause i worked 3rd shift .. when i woke and looked the only thing left on the deck was the rabbits tail and a couple of feathers....just thought u might be interested to know..I am 100 % positive these were the birds i saw
I am not a birder to start out...but about 4 years ago a pair of these white-breasted hawks killed a rabbit on the deck of my house... I live in a residential neighborhood in erie pennsylvania. I heard alot of noise on my deck from my kitchen window and went to see what it was and saw 2 big birds flapping like crazy on my deck..i opened the door and they flew in a willow tree in another close yard and i saw the rabbit laying on the deck.. i got my binoculars out and watched them for about 10 min. looking back at my house. i could see them perfectly. I finally went to bed cause i worked 3rd shift .. when i woke and looked the only thing left on the deck was the rabbits tail and a couple of feathers....just thought u might be interested to know..I am 100 % positive these were the birds i saw
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