The Common Black Hawk, Buteogallus anthracinus, is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes the eagles, hawks and Old World vultures.

The Common Black Hawk is a resident breeding bird in the tropical New World, from the southwestern US through Central America to Peru, Trinidad and the Lesser Antilles.

This is a mainly coastal bird of mangrove swamps, estuaries and adjacent dry open woodland, which builds a large stick nest in a mangrove tree, and usually lays one dark-blotched whitish egg.

The adult Common Black Hawk is 43-53cm long and weighs 930g. It has very broad wings, and is mainly black. The short tail is black with a single broad white band and a white tip. The bill is black and the legs and cere are yellow.

Sexes are similar, but immature birds are dark brown above with spotting and streaks. Their underparts are buff to whitish with dark blotches, and the tail has a number of black and white bars.

The Common Black Hawk feeds mainly on crabs, but will also take small vertebrates and eggs. This species is often seen soaring, with occasional lazy flaps, and has a talon-touching aerial courtship display. The call of Common Black Hawk is a distinctive piping spink-speenk-speenk-spink-spink-spink..

References

• Birds of Venezuela by Hilty, ISBN 0-7136-6418-5
• Birds of Trinidad and Tobago by ffrench, ISBN 0-7136-6759-1