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Short-tailed Hawk

Buteo brachyurusOrder: FALCONIFORMES Family: Kites, Eagles and Hawks (Accipitridae)
Codes: Common Name: STHA Scientific Name: BUTBRA ITIS Taxonomic No.: 175372
Least Concern
 
Short-tailed Hawk: The dark morph Short-tailed Hawk is uniformly dark brown with thin dark bands on a white tail. In flight shows white flight feathers with thin dark bands and dark wingtips.
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Overview

Short-tailed Hawk: Small hawk of grass and woodland habitat in Florida. Occurs in two color morphs: Dark morph adult is uniformly dark brown with thin dark bands on a dull white tail. In flight shows white flight feathers with thin dark bands and dark wingtips. The light morph has white underparts.

Range and Habitat

Short-tailed Hawk Dark Morph: Found in a wide variety of mixed woodland and grassland habitats throughout the southern two-thirds of Florida.

Topo Map: Hawk-like Body


Listen to Call

Voice Text

"keeee"

Interesting Facts

 The Short-tailed Hawk is a rare bird in Florida, although it is not on the Endangered Species list.

 The bird’s range also includes central Mexico south to the Andes and Chile.

 It is easily identified by its solid color underparts (dark or light depending on phase) and striped wing and tail feathers.

 A group of hawks has many collective nouns, including a "boil", "knot", "spiraling", "stream", and "tower" of hawks.


Bird Term Glossary



Author

Gary Owen Dick

Splitbar
Range Map for Short-tailed Hawk

Related Birds

Broad-winged Hawk
Osprey
Red-tailed Hawk
Swainson's Hawk
.
Family
Species Buteo brachyurus
Length15 - 17 Inches
Wingspan37 Inches

Short-tailed Hawk

Short-tailed Hawk: Small hawk of grass and woodland habitat in Florida. Occurs in two color morphs: Dark morph adult is uniformly dark brown with thin dark bands on a dull white tail. In flight shows white flight feathers with thin dark bands and dark wingtips. The light morph has white underparts.

● Song: "keeee"

● Foraging & Feeding: Short-tailed Hawk Dark Morph: Hunts exclusively from the air, dropping out of the sky to catch small birds by surprise, almost never perches except at night. Preys on birds that are on the ground or on the outer branches of trees.

● Breeding & nesting: Short-tailed Hawk Dark Morph: Male supplies sticks for nest, but female does nearly all nest construction. Nests placed high in trees. Lays two to three creamy white to pale blue eggs marked with brown in March or April. Female incubates for 34 days while male brings her food. Fledgling period little known.

● Similar species: Short-tailed Hawk Dark Morph: Dark morph Broad-winged Hawk shows conspicuous dark border around perimeter of wing, and much broader tail bands. Dark morph Swainson's Hawk is darker and much larger with long pointed wingtips.

Flight Pattern

Nearly always airborne with flat wings and prolonged soaring.
Short-tailed Hawk Dark Morph Body Illustration
● Range & Habitat: Short-tailed Hawk Dark Morph: Found in a wide variety of mixed woodland and grassland habitats throughout the southern two-thirds of Florida.
BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester
Population
MigrationNonmigratory
Weight16 Ounces
Hawk-like BodyX
UnderpartsX
Belly, undertail coverts, chest, flanks, and foreneck.
Flight feathersX
Located on the wing, and collectively called remiges (singular, remex). The long stiff feathers are subdivided into two major groups based on the location and are called primaries and secondaries.
4 and 6 letter alpha codesX

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

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ITIS CodesX

The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) was established in the mid-1990�s as a cooperative project among several federal agencies to improve and expand upon taxonomic data (known as the NODC Taxonomic Code) maintained by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

To find the ITIS page for a bird species go to the ITIS web site advanced search and report page at http://www.itis.gov/advanced_search.html. You can enter the TSN or the common name of the bird. It will return the ITIS page for that bird. Another way to obtain the ITIS page is to use the Google search engine. Enter the string ITIS followed by the taxonomic ID, for example "ITIS 178041" will return the page for the Allen's Hummingbird.

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Parts of a Standing birdX
Head Feathers and MarkingsX
Parts of a Flying birdX