Grey-backed Hawk

Pseudastur occidentalis

Vulnerable · IUCN Red List

VUVulnerableVertebratesForestLarge · 660 g

What the Grey-backed Hawk sounds like

Sonogram of the Grey-backed Hawk: time runs left to right, pitch bottom to top, and the brighter the mark the louder the sound.
Recorded by Niels Krabbe · Call · El Oro: Reserva Buenaventura 9 km WNW Piñas, Ecuador · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via xeno-canto

ID tip

The grey-backed hawk is 45 to 52 cm (18 to 20 in) long with a 104 to 116 cm (41 to 46 in) wingspan. One female weighed 660 g (23 oz). Females are about 10% larger than males and both sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a gray and white streaked head, nape, and mantle. They have blackish gray upperparts and a mostly white tail with a wide black band near the end. Their eye is dark brown, their cere gray, and their legs and feet pale yellow. Immatures have brownish gray upperparts, a dusky-striped nape, and gray spots on the breast. Voice: During the grey-backed hawk's display flights, one bird will make a "drawn-out screeching keeeaaarr-keeeaaarr... (which rises in central portion) or, alternatively, a high-pitched kéééoooowww".

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

When to see the Grey-backed Hawk

One bar for each month, and every month is filled: this bird is recorded here in all twelve. The wide bar is December, the month with the most records.

Where to see the Grey-backed Hawk

Regular range

The map shades 2 countries with regular records. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.

About the Grey-backed Hawk

The grey-backed hawk is a Vulnerable species of bird of prey in subfamily Accipitrinae, the "true" hawks, of family Accipitridae. It is found in Ecuador and far northern Peru.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Easily confused with

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