Broad-winged Hawk Photo Gallery

Adult light morph

Small hawk with broad wings that come to a slight point at the tips. Light morph adult has barred underparts and a strongly banded tail. Note dark outline to trailing edge of wings.

Adult light morph

A small forest raptor, often best detected during the breeding season by its loud, piercing whistled call.

Adult light morph

Light morph adult has a brown head with variable amounts of barring on the breast.

Adult light morph

Small, compact hawk with brown upperparts. Adult has a broad white band on the tail.

Adult dark morph

Rare dark-morph adult is uniform dark brown overall, except for a broad white band in the tail.

Juvenile light morph

Juvenile light morphs have variable amounts of brown barring on the breast.

Juvenile light morph

Some juvenile light morphs have more heavily streaked underparts.

Juvenile light morph

Juvenile light morph has brown upperparts with some white markings.

Juvenile light morph

Juvenile light morphs have variable amounts of brown on the breast and lack a dark trailing edge to the wing. The tail has many narrow bands, usually with a stronger dark band at the tip. The gaps in the wing indicate this bird is molting its primary feathers.

Juvenile dark morph

In flight, both adult and juvenile dark morph have silvery flight feathers that contast with dark brown underwing coverts. Juvenile's tail has several dark bands, while adult dark morph's tail is similar to adult light morph's.

Immature light morph

This immature bird is replacing juvenile tail pattern (visible in outer tail feathers) with adult pattern (inner feathers). Typically does not breed until more than one year old, but yearling birds (especially males) sometimes mate with adults.

Immature light morph

A small, compact hawk with broad wings, a large head, and a fairly short tail.

Habitat

A hawk of forests, breeding in large deciduous or mixed deciduous-evergreen forests.

Flock

Forms large flocks on migration, sometimes numbering in the tens of thousands or more. Sometimes flocks with other hawk species.