The White Hawk is found in tropical and sub tropical zones in well-watered regions from southern Mexico as far south as the southern borders of Amazonia. Its preferred habitat is mixed forest, edges, and clearings. In Surinam common in the interior forests but not in the coastal plains.

It prefers well-watered tropical regions where the dry season is not too long, but it avoids deep, unbroken rain forest, except around swampy areas where the forest is more thinned out.

White hawks in Guatemala begin courtship displays and nest building in February, and by mid-to-late March egg laying and incubation begins. Several different species of trees are utilized as nest sites. Only one pair reoccupied a nest tree from a previous breeding season. The nest height averages 22 m above the ground. External nest measurements average 41 x 62 cm across and 29 cm deep. Clutch size is one egg. The average incubation period is 35 days (range 34 - 38 days). Three nestlings fledged at 65, 66, and 88 days of age. Immature birds were found at two nests near the end of the 1991 field season. All young fledged during June and July. The home ranges for two breeding males were 248 ha and 290 ha.

The White Hawk feeds mostly on tree snakes and lizards (70%) up to 38 cm long. Sometimes the White Hawk may catch a young or weak bird (7%). It also takes large insects or amphibians (13%).

This species has a large range, with an estimated global Extent of Occurrence of 7,600,000 km². It has a large global population estimated to be 10,000-100,000 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.