Crane Hawk

The Crane Hawk (literally Crane Raptor) has a very imaginative name in both languages. Some have linked the Crane Hawk to the African Harrier Hawk due to its hunting style or its plumage, but the filiation is very unlikely and this Crane Hawk is almost certainly a Neotropical raptor. Three groups are recognized: nigra, caerulescens and gracilis. The most recognizable is caerulescens, the bird measuring from 40 to 50cm, and the first visible peculiarity, especially when it is on the ground, is the length of its red-orange legs, which seem to perch our Crane Hawk on stilts. The predominant color is a magnificent gray-blue that covers the whole head, the mantle and the back. The wings have all the upper parts, coverts, scapulars and remiges of the same gray-blue color. When the Crane Hawk is in flight, the under-wing covers are light gray to darken to become black for the remiges, two very clear white bands appear at the limit of the hand and the primary remiges. The chest and abdomen will have the same gray, the lower abdomen will be slightly striped with white and the rectrices black are barred with two very clear white marks. Females are generally larger than males.
Young birds have a different appearance, the crown, the nape, the forehead and the chest are striped with white, the parotic areas are also white. The chest that should become gray-blue is gray and has white marks, generally vertical, the abdomen and lower abdomen are yellowish, as well as the plumage covering the tibiae. The upper coverts are striped with white. The young have the yellow eye circle that will become dark red with age, the eye is black as is the beak.
The peculiarity of the Crane Hawk, which gave its name to the species, are the red orange colored legs and especially the tarsometatarsi which are longer in the Crane Hawk than in other buzzards and which are essential for its particular way of hunting.Of the three recognized groups, nigra is the most differentiated with an adult plumage of black instead of the gray-blue of caerulescens, gracilis remains gray with a chest and belly that will keep white stripes in adults.