Identified by its slate gray head and wings, white breast, and orange legs and ceres, Semiplumbeous Hawks (Leucopternis semiplumbea) haunt the understory and lower canopy of the rainforest. They prefer to drop from low perches onto their prey, and, like this one, don’t seem to mind people approaching with cameras.
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A Mangrove Black-Hawk enjoys the spray of Pacific waves breaking on volcanic rocks near Corcovado.
Before I started writing this post, I didn’t realize that there are two types of Black-Hawks in Costa Rica that look just like the bird in this picture: the Common Black-Hawk (Buteogallus anthracinus) and the Mangrove Black-Hawk (Buteogallus subtilis). According to one of my bird books, Common Black-Hawks live along the Caribbean coast, while Mangrove Black-Hawks live along the Pacific, especially to the south. The two species may be conspecific, meaning they’re really the same bird. Perhaps time and a little science will tell. I commonly see these large raptors on the Osa Peninsula, where I snapped this photograph during a hike.
All media is copyright costaricawildlife.net, 2013.
