White-rumped Hawk

The white-rumped hawk is 33 to 40 cm (13 to 16 in) long with a 67 to 79 cm (26 to 31 in) wingspan. One male weighed 290 g (10 oz) and one female 389 g (14 oz). Males and females have the same plumage. Adults are almost entirely black but with the namesake white rump and undertail coverts. Their tail has a narrow grayish-brown band at its midpoint and their thighs are feathered rufous. Their eye, cere, legs, and feet are yellow. Immatures have brown upperparts with rufous mottling and heavily mottled rufous underparts.

The white-rumped hawk has two separate ranges. One is from the Andes and other mountains of Venezuela and Colombia south in the Andes through Ecuador into Peru, Bolivia, and northwestern Argentina. The other range is from southern Brazil through Paraguay into northeastern Argentina. The species inhabits the interior and edges of dense subtropical and tropical forest and also the Chaco in the east. In elevation it mostly occurs between 1,500 and 2,900 m (4,900 and 9,500 ft) in Colombia, between 1,650 and 2,500 m (5,400 and 8,200 ft) in Peru, and up to 3,500 m (11,500 ft) in Bolivia. It occurs at lower elevations in its eastern range.

The white-rumped hawk's hunting methods and diet are mostly unknown. It has been documented feeding on reptiles, frogs, insects, and rats.