Nombre en español: Gavilán Saraviado

Nombre en ingles: Gray-lined Hawk

Nombre científico: Buteo nitidus

Familia: Accipitridae

Foto: Daniel Hernadez/Juan Ocho/Carlos Mario Bran

Canto: Andrew Spencer

El busardo gris meridional (Buteo nitidus), también conocido como aguilucho gris, gavilán gris, gavilán barrigrís o gavilán saraviado, es una especie de ave accipitriforme de la familia Accipitridae autóctona de la región neotropical, desde el sur de Costa Rica hasta el norte de la Argentina.

Hábitat

Esta especie habita en bosques con árboles dispersos y bosques ribereños, algunas veces en regiones semiáridas. También en los amplios trechos de los bosques tropicales poco densos, xerofíticos o deciduos. Muy rara vez se lo encuentra en bosques húmedos (en Colombia, en el Urabá).

Descripción

Es pequeño y compacto, de color gris con manto finamente rayado, rabadilla blanca, ojos marrones oscuros, y cera (membrana que rodea la base del pico) y patas amarillas.

Alimentación

Prefiere los lagartos y serpientes pequeñas en su dieta. Además, caza guacamayas pequeñas y otras aves, saltamontes, escarabajos y roedores.

Subespecies

Se reconocen tres subespecies de Buteo nitidus:

Buteo nitidus blakei – del sudoeste de Costa Rica al norte de Colombia y oeste de Ecuador.
Buteo nitidus nitidus – del este de Colombia y Ecuador hasta las Guayanas y la Amazonia brasileña.
Buteo nitidus pallidus – del sur-centro de Brasil al este de Bolivia, Paraguay y norte de Argentina.

Gray-lined hawk

The gray-lined hawk (Buteo nitidus) is a smallish raptor found in open country and forest edges. It is sometimes placed in the genus Asturina as Asturina nitida. The species has been split by the American Ornithological Society from the gray hawk. The gray-lined hawk is found from southern Costa Rica to Argentina.

The gray-lined hawk is 46–61 cm (18–24 in) in length and weighs 475 g (16.8 oz) average. The adult has a pale gray body, the tail is black with three white bands and the legs are orange. It has fine white barring on the upper parts.

Immature birds have dark brown upperparts, a pale-banded brown tail, brown-spotted white underparts and a brown streaked buff head and neck. This species is quite short-winged, and has a fast agile flight for a Buteo.

It feeds mainly on lizards and snakes, but will also take small mammals, birds and frogs. It usually sits on an open high perch from which it swoops on its prey, but will also hunt from a low glide. The nest is of sticks and built high in a tree. The usual clutch is one to three, usually two white to pale blue eggs. The young take about 6 weeks to fledging.

The Gray Hawk is a widespread small hawk of open habitats through much of the Neotropics. It is relatively uniformly colored overall, gray above and finely barred gray and white below. The tail is banded black and white, and the cere and legs are yellow-orange. Immatures are brown above and streaked white and brown below. The Gray Hawk occurs in river-edge habitats, forest edges and clearings, scrub, savanna, and agricultural land from Mexico and the southwestern United States south to northern Argentina. Birds at the northern end of the range in Mexico and the US are migratory, but the Gray Hawk is resident farther south. This species feeds mostly on reptiles, but also takes birds, rodents, and large insects. Gray Hawks typically hunt from a perch. Breeding birds engage in aerial courtship displays and build a stick nest in a tree or, in more open areas, in thorny shrub.