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[[Image:BlackCollaredHawk.jpg]]

'''Common Name:''' Black-collared Hawk<br>
'''Scientific Name:''' Busarellus nigricollis

'''Size:''' 21-23 inches (52-58 cm); '''Wingspan:''' 51-56 inches (130-143 cm)

'''Habitat:''' Central America and South America; it is found in Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, and Venezuela. 

Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical swamps. They prefer dense, wooded, humid, vegetated area with an immense amount of water (rivers, ponds, and lakes with floating vegetation and easily accessible perches), such as forests, swamps, mangroves, and rice fields.

'''Status:''' Least Concern. '''Global population''': 20,000-49,999 adult individuals with a decreasing population trend. The population has declined markedly in some areas owing to drainage of wetlands and urban development.

'''Diet:''' Mostly fish; supplemented with water bugs and occasionally lizards, snails and rodents.

Typically, they perch above shallow pools or marshes and drop onto prey.

'''Nesting:'''  The adult black-collared hawk has a more or less white head, tinged with buff, and with black shaft streaks on the crown. The body, above and below, and the mantle are bright cinnamon-rufous, paler on the chest. There is a black crescent on the upper breast. The back has scattered black shaft stripes; the flight and tail feathers are black with the base of the tail barred with rufous. The eyes are bright reddish brown, the cere and bill black, and the legs bluish white. 

Immatures are similar, but blotched with black, including on the crown, and the rufous barring on the tail is more extensive. The pale area on the chest is also more clearly marked. The upper surface of the wings is barred, and the eyes are brown.

The nest is usually placed in a large tree, frequently near water, but sometimes in shade trees in coffee plantations or suburban areas. The nest is lined with green leaves. The female lays three to five eggs, dull white, spotted with pale yellow-brown or red-brown and a few darker freckles. 

Cool Facts: Generally the Black-collared Hawk is quite silent, but occasionally they makes high-pitched screams ''hi-iiiiiiiii'' and low groans ''earrrrrrrrrr'' very similar to the Red-tailed Hawk and the Red-shouldered Hawk. 


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