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  Profile

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  In flight

Birds of Prey

Roadside Hawk

Rupornis magnirostris

• uncommon
• 45 km/h
• Least Concern

The most common raptor in Latin America, perches on wires and fence posts watching for grasshoppers.

Population

Not numerically quantified by IUCN/BirdLife (population size and precise trend are not published in a countable figure); widely described as one of the most common and abundant raptors across its Neotropical range

Habitat

Forest edges, secondary growth, open woodland, savanna with gallery forest, and pasture/agricultural land, from lowlands up to ~2,500 m; avoids dense primary rainforest and is well-adapted to human-altered and urban landscapes

Fun fact

Despite being a bird of prey, the Roadside Hawk is famously bold and un-shy of people, becoming aggressive and even attacking humans who wander too close to its nest.

Range

Neotropics from Mexico through Central America to South America east of the Andes, south to Uruguay and northern Argentina; rare vagrant to southern Texas

Diet

Mainly large insects (e.g., grasshoppers) and small vertebrates such as lizards, snakes, frogs, small mammals and birds, occasionally carrion; hunts by still-hunting/perch-hunting from an exposed perch

Size

0.37 m

Wingspan

0.74 m

Lifespan

15 years