This is an adult. Juveniles are buffy brown and heavily spotted below. Two subspecies are recognized. This is the nominate race found in South America. Another race found in Middle America differs in that their adults have two black tail bands instead of just one. Normally thought to be resident, a recent record from Maine created great excitement in the birding community. Unfortunately it succumbed to frostbite and had to be euthanized. This species can be confused with the similar but smaller Common Black Hawk (B. anthracinus) but genetic studies have shown that the two are not each other's closest relatives. For this reason the AOU decided to follow SACC and remove the hyphen from "Black-Hawk." The hyphen implied a false monophyletic relationship. See: http://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCprop515.htm
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