The Harris's Hawk or Harris Hawk (formerly the Bay-winged Hawk), Parabuteo unicinctus, is a medium-large bird of prey which breeds from the southwestern USA south to Chile and central Argentina. It is the only member of the genus Parabuteo (Ridgway, 1874).

Its habitat is sparse woodland and semi-desert, as well as marshes (with some trees) in some parts of its range (Howell and Webb 1994). It nests in a tree and lays 2–4 eggs, incubated for 28 days to hatching.

It has blackish brown plumage with chestnut forewings (above and below) and thighs. The end of the tail and the rump are white. It has a length of 60 cm and a wingspan of 1.2 m; the average weight is about 900 g (2 pounds). Females are typically 10% bigger than males.

A Harris's Hawk can just about catch and kill a rabbit, but its natural prey are small rodents and reptiles.

Harris's Hawks' social behavior is unusual for raptors. Young may stay with their parents for up to three years, helping to raise later broods. They also hunt together, groups of two to six birds often cooperating to flush and then capture prey. In contrast, the vast majority of raptors are solitary hunters.

This social behavior gives Harris's Hawks an easygoing nature that makes them desirable captive birds. Since about 1980, Harris's Hawk have been increasingly used in falconry and are now the most popular hawks in the West (outside of Asia) for that purpose, as they are the easiest to train and the most affectionate.^[1]

Hunting with Harris's Hawks often works best with two or more birds. (In contrast most other raptors cannot be flown together, as they will attack each other.) When prey is flushed, the birds can work together to corner the animal – compensating for their relatively low acceleration and speed. Harris's Hawks will happily treat the falconer as a hunting partner, and will follow from tree to tree and perch until the falconer flushes a rabbit from the bushes!

The Harris's Hawk is now widely used in European towns to scare pigeons and Starlings. Many airports use falconers to scare these birds away from the land around runways and reduce the risk of birdstrikes on planes.

John James Audubon gave this bird its English name in honor of his ornithological companion, financial supporter, and friend Edward Harris .^[2]

Reference

• A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America, Steve N. G. Howell and Sophie Webb, 1994, ISBN 0198540124

External links

• Peregrine Fund page on Harris's Hawk
• Borch's Falconry page ditto