Ornate Hawk-Eagle
Where and when to see the Ornate Hawk-Eagle
DraftOn the Yucatán Peninsula
It lives in tall, mature forest in the south of the peninsula, mostly in Campeche and Quintana Roo. Early on it perches on dead snags above the canopy, and by mid to late morning it circles over the forest, calling over and over.
Where it’s reported most
We don’t name sites: this species is targeted by trapping or hunting.
When
All year · most reports Jan–Apr
Most reports from January to April.
Reports relative to effort
- January: 92%
- February: 100%
- March: 88%
- April: 83%
- May: 52%
- June: 55%
- July: 27%
- August: 58%
- September: 85%
- October: 59%
- November: 93%
- December: 58%
Data: eBird and other datasets via GBIF.org (CC BY 4.0), 2015–2026 · Base map: Natural Earth
Hunts inside mature forest canopy. It needs large unbroken tracts, which makes it one of the first raptors to disappear when forest is opened up.
- Identification
- A slim, long-tailed forest eagle. Adults have a black crown and long black crest, rich rufous sides to the head and neck, a white throat edged by black moustache stripes, and white underparts heavily barred black. The tail is banded and the legs are feathered. Young birds have a white head and underparts.
- Voice
- Its main call, given while soaring, is a series of loud, piping whistles, often written whi whee-whee-wheep, with the last note drawn out.
What the photo doesn’t show
DraftCrest up, crest down
Its long black crest isn’t always on show: it can raise it or lay it flat, and birders who expect a crest every time sometimes fail to recognise it. 1
A hunter of big birds
At Tikal, in Guatemala’s Petén across the border from Calakmul, researchers identified 325 prey items at its nests. Just over half were birds, mostly toucan-sized but including guans, curassows and even Ocellated Turkeys; most of the mammals were tree squirrels. 2
One chick, no hurry
At Tikal each pair raised a single chick: incubation took 44–46 days, the young flew at 66–92 days and stayed dependent on its parents for about a year after that. In Belize, pairs managed to nest every other year at best. 2,3
It needs big forest
Its main threat is fast-spreading deforestation across much of its range, for farmland, cattle pasture and infrastructure. It depends on large tracts of mature forest and is also hunted and persecuted. 2,3
Sources
- Birds of the World (Cornell Lab): Ornate Hawk-Eagle (opens in a new tab)
- The Peregrine Fund, Maya Project: research results (opens in a new tab)
- BirdLife International, Data Zone: Ornate Hawk-Eagle (opens in a new tab)
- DOF, 14/11/2019: NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010, Anexo III (opens in a new tab)
Map and months: 367 records from 2015–2026 from eBird and iNaturalist, via GBIF.org (CC BY 4.0), in 0.1° squares (about 10 km). eBird: doi.org/10.15468/aomfnb.
Months: the species’ records ÷ all bird records that month, scaled to the busiest month. It allows for birding effort; it is not the chance of seeing it. A blank square: few or no reports, not necessarily absent.
Tell us where, or ask how to find one.
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