Galapagos hawk  (Buteo galapagoensis)

Description

The Galapagos hawk is a large, dark coloured hawk with broad wings, and a broad tail (2) (5). Adults are sooty brownish-black in colour with a grey tail barred with darker stripes (2). The legs and skin at the base of the beak are yellow (3) and the bill is greyish black (5). Immature birds have blackish-brown upperparts, mottled with buff and white; the tail is off-white with wavy dark bars and their underparts are buff-coloured with a white throat flecked with blackish-brown spots. Males are noticeably smaller than females (5). The most typical call is a series of short screams that have been described as ‘keer, keeu’. Occasionally a rapid ‘cher, cher, cher’ is heard. When on the wing a scream is produced in bursts of three to five (5).

Darwin Now is the British Council's contribution to the international celebration of the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and the 150 year anniversary of the publication of On The Origin of Species
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