All species › Birds of prey › Kites, Old World vultures, eagles and hawks › Semicollared Hawk
Semicollared Hawk | Microspizias collaris
Halsbandsperwer | Azor collarejo | Tauató-de-colar
The Semicollared Hawk is a small accipiter of the subtropical montane forest of the northern and central Andes. It is scarce everywhere and seldom recorded, so its life history is only partly known.
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Voice
Little known. High, rapid series kee-kee-kee have been reported, mainly around the nest.
No recording with a suitable Creative Commons licence is available for this species yet.
Identification
25–30 cm; the female is larger than the male. A small accipiter with short, rounded wings and a fairly long tail. Adults are dark grey-brown to blackish on the crown and upperparts, with a dark, somewhat mottled cheek and a pale, broken collar on the nape. The underparts are white with coarse dark barring, and the tail is grey-brown with dark bands. Juveniles are browner above and barred brown below, with a less distinct collar.
Confusion species
Tiny Hawk Microspizias superciliosus is very similar, but lives mainly in the lowlands, is more finely barred below and has no collar and no dark cheek. Sharp-shinned Hawk Accipiter striatus lives in the same elevational zone, but has rufous thighs and finer markings below. Barred Forest Falcon Micrastur ruficollis has bare yellow skin around the eye and a longer tail with narrow white bands. Double-toothed Kite Harpagus bidentatus has a black throat stripe.
Habitat
Humid subtropical montane forest and forest edges on the slopes of the Andes, mainly between about 1200 and 2500 m, locally lower. It hunts from cover in the canopy and at forest edges, mainly for small birds. Little is known about the nest.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia locally in all three cordilleras. In Ecuador rare on both slopes of the Andes. In Peru locally on the east slope of the Andes, south into the south of the country. Not known with certainty from Bolivia. Outside the guide area in the Andes of western Venezuela.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
The best chance of a sighting is with mixed-species flocks and at forest edges in subtropical montane forest, where it hunts low through the vegetation, and from viewpoints in the morning, when birds sometimes soar briefly.
Conservation status
Least Concern in the current assessment, but scarce everywhere and dependent on montane forest, which has been cleared in many places.
Scientific name
Microspizias collaris | (Sclater, 1860) (GBIF: Accipiter collaris)
Sclater described the species in 1860 as Accipiter collaris; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Microspizias was introduced in 2021 by Sangster, Kirwan, Fuchs, Dickinson, Elliott & Gregory. The genus name comes from Greek mikros, 'small', and spizias, 'hawk', thus 'small hawk'. The species name comes from Latin collaris, 'of the neck' or 'collared', after the pale collar. The specimen the first description was based on came from Bogotá, Colombia.