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.