All species › Birds of prey › Kites, Old World vultures, eagles and hawks › Black Hawk-Eagle
Black Hawk-Eagle | Spizaetus tyrannus
Zwarte kuifarend | Águila tirana | Gavião-pega-macaco
The Black Hawk-Eagle is a slim, blackish eagle of humid forest, with long wings that narrow at the base and a long, banded tail. It often circles high above the forest, giving its loud, whistled call. It hunts medium-sized mammals and birds in the canopy.
Voice
A loud, whistled wheet-wheet-wheeeeer, the last note long and falling, often given in flight high above the forest.
Recording: rudy gelis — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
58–70 cm; the female is larger than the male. The adult is blackish, with a short, bushy crest that may show white at the feather bases. The thighs, legs and undertail coverts are black with fine white bars; the legs are feathered to the toes. The tail is black with three or four broad grey bands. In flight the wings are long and broad, narrower at the base and rounded on the trailing edge, with white-and-black checkered flight feathers. Juveniles are brown above, with a pale, dark-streaked head, a white supercilium and creamy underparts with dark streaks and bars.
Confusion species
Black-and-chestnut Eagle Spizaetus isidori is larger, with chestnut underparts and a grey tail with a single broad black terminal band, and lives higher up. Ornate Hawk-Eagle Spizaetus ornatus has a rufous neck and a white throat and breast. Great Black Hawk Buteogallus urubitinga has long, bare yellow legs, broad wings and a white tail with a black terminal band. Juveniles can resemble juvenile Ornate Hawk-Eagles, which are whiter on the head and underparts.
Habitat
Humid lowland, foothill and lower montane forest, also forest edges and forest–farmland mosaics, from sea level to about 1500 m, locally to 2000 m. It hunts from the canopy for medium-sized mammals such as squirrels, opossums and monkeys, and birds such as guans and other gamebirds. The nest is a large stick nest high in a tree.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia in the lowlands and on the lower Andean slopes, including the Magdalena valley. In Ecuador in the western and eastern lowlands and foothills. In Peru east of the Andes. In Bolivia in the lowlands of the north and east and in the lower Yungas. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area from Mexico to Venezuela, the Guianas, Brazil, Paraguay and north-eastern Argentina.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In the late morning, listen for the loud whistled call above the forest, then search high in the sky for a dark eagle with barred wings and tail. Viewpoints over forested valleys in the foothills are suitable.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species is declining through deforestation and is locally hunted or persecuted.
Scientific name
Spizaetus tyrannus | (Wied-Neuwied, 1820)
Wied-Neuwied described the species in 1820 as Falco tyrannus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Spizaetus was introduced in 1816 by Vieillot. The genus name comes from Ancient Greek spizias, 'hawk', and aetos, 'eagle'. The species name is Latin tyrannus, 'tyrant' or 'ruler'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Rio Belmonte, Bahia, Brazil.