Roadside Hawk

Rupornis magnirostris

eBird provides this description for the Roadside Hawk:  Well-named, the common roadside hawk in tropical lowlands of East Mexico and Central and South America. Often seen on wires, phone poles, posts out in fields. Adult has staring pale eyes, streaked breast contrasting with barred belly. Immature streaked below, much like many other immature hawks, but its tail has broad and fairly even bands. Flies with rather quick, stiff wingbeats, recalling a Red-shouldered Hawk or an Accipiter; noisy flight display mainly in late winter-spring.

The Birds of the World website introduces the Roadside Hawk with this descriptive information:  The Roadside Hawk, which is found from northern Mexico south to Argentina, is one of the most widespread raptors of the neotropics. This species shows considerable geographic variation across its wide distribution, with 12 currently recognized subspecies. Most of the subspecies are similar to one another, being gray above, with a grey head, yellow cere, banded tail and tight rufous banding from the breast to the vent. A few subspecies are more distinctive, however, such as saturatus, a brown and rufous subspecies found from Bolivia south to Argentina in drier Chaco forest, and gracilis, a brown, streaky subspecies found on islands off the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. The Roadside Hawk is so named due to its preference for the edges of forest; it occurs in many different environments, including the edges of tropical lowland forest, deciduous forest, and desert. The Roadside Hawk feeds on a variety of small prey including reptiles and small mammals, but mainly feeds on insects.

I saw and photographed my first Roadside Hawk on the late afternoon of February 9, 2023, as we traveled from San Isidro along the pacific coast toward Jaco, Costa Rica.  This stunning bird was perched near the road and very cooperative.  I was delighted to add this hawk to my life list and to have a decent picture to display!