FOR AGES 3 YEARS TO 18 YEARS
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Have you ever seen a bird soaring high and suddenly descend to pounce on its prey sharply? That might possibly be a Short-tailed hawk! If it appears to be slightly smaller, about the size of a crow, and has an unusually short tail, it is clearly a Short-tailed hawk! Did you know that these are strong, powerful birds with acute visual capability (eight times more than humans) to see their prey from great heights? They are amongst the most intelligent birds, which is evident in their innovation in diet habits.
The Short-tailed hawk, an American bird of prey, belongs to the family Accipitridae and is called Buteo brachyrus. This family also includes Old world vultures and eagles. The Buteo group members are called hawks in America, but they are called buzzards and not considered true hawks in other parts of the world. Like other buzzards, they have a high-pitched scream!
This bird is unique to have a dark morph and is known as a Little black hawk, mostly in Florida and North America. The light morph is found in other parts of the world. Read on to discover all about them. You might also like our collection of articles on predator birds like the sea eagle and Hawaiian hawk.
A short-tailed hawk is a bird that is often seen flying with flat wings and tips bent upward. Its closest cousin is the broad-winged hawk but distinguished by its tail shape and wings. They are more often in flight and less often perched.
Short-tailed hawks belong to the class Aves and family Accipitridae. These migratory birds make southern Florida their habitat.
Though the overall number of Short-tailed hawks is unknown, its Florida population is about 500. In other parts of the world, this bird is in large numbers.
The tailed hawk habitat is primarily lowland and foothill areas, typically up to 2500 ft heights which can sometimes go up to 4500 ft. These populations are found breeding in habitats of tropical and subtropical Americas, southeastern Brazil, and north Argentina until Central America. They also extend until the mountains of the Mexico-Arizona border, southern Florida. They move newer habitats down south from Mexico to Costa Rica during migration. Only some populations are inclined to migrate.
During the mating season, the Short-tailed hawk buteo lives in habitats like mangroves or swamps with tall, dense, and wet tropical forests near water bodies. In the non-mating season, they mostly live in forest edges, pastures, open country regions near coastal areas. Did you ever wonder why they prefer habitats such as open country regions and forest edges? The wind conditions and velocities in such areas aid their hunting style, which is unique! These birds perch and nest on large trees while roosting. These species change their habitat during migration.
The Short-tailed hawk buteo generally leads a solitary life throughout the year except while breeding. During migration, they may form groups of 3-11 sometimes.
Though there is no information about the lifespan of a Short-tailed hawk specifically, it is generally known that hawks can live up to 20years.
The short-tailed hawk (Buteo brachyurus) are monogamous birds with the breeding season starting from January to July every year. The male circles around the perched female, presenting her prey or nesting material before copulation. Then they hold each other's talons, and both tumble down. The male gives a high-pitched squeal before mounting and then copulates for about five to seven seconds.
The female creates a nest with twigs, and the male helps gather the nest material. The nests are typically large and built on dense trees at a height. The female lays one to three eggs that are oval shape and bluish-white color, with or without speckles. The incubation period is 34-39 days, while the male provides food for the female during this period. The eggs hatch, and nestlings weighing 35-55 g emerge. Chicks are fed by both parents twice or thrice a day.
The conservation status of the Short-tailed hawk buteo is Least Concern. These birds are not very common in their range; they are not a threatened species. Only the Florida population is endangered due to its low numbers. It is considered endangered due to poor mating practices, reduction in the habitat of swamp forests and prairies, and geographic separation. In general, heatwaves, urbanization, heavy rains, and losing coastal areas due to rising sea levels could be potential threats to this bird.
This species occurs as light and dark morphs, distinct and with no intermediaries. The light morph has white underparts and dark blackish-brown upperparts except for tail and flight feathers, which are broad-winged and have dark and gray bars. The juvenile has a streaked face instead of white and equal-width tail bands, unlike the adult light morph, which has a broad bar at the tail tip.
The adult dark morph has dark brown upper and underparts. The tail and flight feathers are similar to the light morph, except the tail has darker gray bars. The dark morphs are also broad-winged. The juvenile dark morph has a similar tail pattern as the light morph juvenile, and underparts have white spots. The adult dark morph is not completely dark brown. They are predominant in North America.
More than being cute, short-tailed hawk birds appear strong, powerful, and in control. They can induce fear just by their looks and sharp beak capable of tearing apart the flesh of prey while hunting.
The Short-tailed hawk (Buteo brachyurus) is generally silent during the non-breeding season. It is probably an indication of either alarm or happiness! We can hear their high-pitched, shrill - keeeee on occasions when humans approach their nesting. We can hear the same calls before or after mating and when the mate brings food for the female during incubation. We can also hear the chick's calls by squealing softly for feeding four to five days after they hatch.
Within the species of Buteo, the Short-tailed hawks are relatively small size birds. They are similar to the size of a crow. Its width can almost double its overall size when it spreads its wings.
The Short-tailed hawk (Buteo brachyurus) is not known for its high speed during flight. But, did you know that the red-tailed hawk, a close cousin of this tailed hawk, has a flight speed as high as 118 mph?!
An adult hawk can weigh anywhere between 0.9-1.5 lb (390-520 g). The female is slightly larger, though they are not distinguishable visually.
As per the field guide, these species are named B.Brachyurus. The male is called a male Short-tailed hawk, and the female is called a female Short-tailed hawk.
The baby, as soon as it hatches, is called nesting. As the days pass by, the small birds are called chicks.
These bird species mostly eat small birds, but their diet occasionally consists of lizards, insects, snakes, and frogs. They feed on small adult birds and not nestlings.
Generally, they are not dangerous to humans unless humans approach their nesting or the bird senses harm to the chicks.
These birds are predators! We cannot have them as pets. They can prey on your smaller pets in size, like puppies, and you need to protect them from being attacked.
Did you know that these birds have no known predators? Crows are only known as partial predators, to rob their eggs.
Ridgway's Hawks are one of the rarest hawks in the world and are listed as Critically Endangered.
This species is most active for a couple of hours after dawn and before sunset.
Yes, having a short-tailed hawk visit your backyard would be very interesting and beneficial to maintain a balanced ecosystem and habitat. Feeding on rodents, snakes, large insects, squirrels, and other animals, can keep them in check!
The soaring of hawks at great heights and their ability to see prey and potential threats from such heights symbolizes the ability to utilize higher vision and intuition to accomplish tasks and make important judgments.
Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly animal facts for everyone to discover! Learn more about some other birds from our northern shoveler facts, and prairie falcon fun facts pages.
You can even occupy yourself at home by coloring in one of our free printable short-tailed hawk coloring pages.
Read The Disclaimer
At Kidadl we pride ourselves on offering families original ideas to make the most of time spent together at home or out and about, wherever you are in the world. We strive to recommend the very best things that are suggested by our community and are things we would do ourselves - our aim is to be the trusted friend to parents.
We try our very best, but cannot guarantee perfection. We will always aim to give you accurate information at the date of publication - however, information does change, so it’s important you do your own research, double-check and make the decision that is right for your family.
Kidadl provides inspiration to entertain and educate your children. We recognise that not all activities and ideas are appropriate and suitable for all children and families or in all circumstances. Our recommended activities are based on age but these are a guide. We recommend that these ideas are used as inspiration, that ideas are undertaken with appropriate adult supervision, and that each adult uses their own discretion and knowledge of their children to consider the safety and suitability.
Kidadl cannot accept liability for the execution of these ideas, and parental supervision is advised at all times, as safety is paramount. Anyone using the information provided by Kidadl does so at their own risk and we can not accept liability if things go wrong.
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