A common bird throughout its range, the Roadside Hawk can be found in Mexico, Brazil, and the Northern parts of Argentina. In Suriname the most numerous Hawk, found everywhere except in large patches of dense forest.

With the possible exception of dense forests, the Roadside Hawk is well adapted to most ecosystems of its range. Lowland tropical areas to subtropical habitats, but not in the interior or large open savannahs. In most South American countries a very abundant species adapted to a range of habitats.

Builds a bulky nest of sticks and lined with leaves. The matures are very noisy around the nest which is mostly found in isolated, emergent trees. The clutch size is 1 (Venezuela) to 2 (Mexico) eggs, incubated for about 37 days. Will renest after brood failed.

Roadside Hawks use still-hunting (hunting from a perch and dropping down to capture a prey item) or, to a much lesser extend, ground-hunting (walking on the ground and seizing prey in the talons) and aerial attacks on birds. The height of the perch is about 10 meter high. Reptiles comprise over half of the nestling diet overall. also Amphibians, Insects, mammals and birds. Lizards, frogs, and insects typically are delivered to nests intact, but most mammals are decapitated or partially eaten before delivery. Birds are plucked before they are brought to the prey exchange site.

This species has a large range, with an estimated global extent of occurrence of 15,000,000 km2. It has a large global population estimated to be 100,000-1,000,000 individuals (Ferguson-Lees et al. 2001). Global population trends have not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List (i.e., declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations). For these reasons, the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

Sedentary in all of its range.

article number 1 Title
Diet and Foraging Behavior of Nesting Roadside Hawks in Pete´n, Guatemala
Author(s): Theresa Panasci and David Whitacre
Abstract: In 1993 and 1994, we collected data on the diet and foraging behavior of Roadside Hawks (Buteo magnirostris) in primary tropical forest with slash-and-burn farming landscape nearby. We identified ..[more]..
Source: Wilson Bull., 112(4), 2000, pp. 555-558
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