All species › Birds of prey › Kites, Old World vultures, eagles and hawks › White-browed Hawk
White-browed Hawk | Leucopternis kuhli
Kuhls buizerd | Gavilán cejiblanco | Gavião-vaqueiro
The White-browed Hawk is the southern counterpart of the Black-faced Hawk: a small black-and-white forest hawk of Amazonia south of the Amazon, with a white supercilium above a black mask. In the guide area it lives in eastern Peru and northern Bolivia.
Voice
A high, thin, descending whistle, very similar to that of Black-faced Hawk.
Recording: Felipe Arantes — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
34–38 cm. The crown is grey and separated from a black cheek and eye area by a narrow white supercilium. Back and wings are black, the underparts pure white without streaks. The tail is black with a single narrow white band and a white tip. Cere and legs are orange-yellow. In flight the underwings are white with dark tips to the primaries. The sexes are alike; juveniles are somewhat browner on the upperparts.
Confusion species
Black-faced Hawk Leucopternis melanops lives north of the Amazon; it has a white, finely streaked head without a grey crown. White Hawk Pseudastur albicollis is much larger, with a white tail with a broad black band. Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle Spizaetus melanoleucus is larger, with a short black crest and a long, barred tail.
Habitat
Humid lowland forest on terra firme, less in várzea, up to about 600 m. It lives in the mid-levels below the canopy and hunts from a perch, taking lizards, snakes, frogs and large insects. 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 Peru in the eastern lowlands south of the Amazon and the Marañón. In Bolivia in the north, mainly in Pando, Beni and northern La Paz. Not in Colombia or Ecuador. Outside the guide area in Brazilian Amazonia south of the Amazon.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search terra firme forest around Manu or Tambopata, where birds sit motionless below the canopy; listen for the descending whistle.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Scarce everywhere and at low densities; sensitive to deforestation in southern Amazonia.
Scientific name
Leucopternis kuhli | Bonaparte, 1850
Bonaparte described the species in 1850 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Leucopternis was introduced in 1847 by Kaup. The genus name comes from Greek leukos, 'white', and pternis, a kind of hawk known to the ancient Greeks. The species name honours Heinrich Kuhl (1797–1821), German zoologist who died on a collecting expedition in Java. The specimen the first description was based on came from Pará, Brazil.