A Roadside Hawks is seen perched on a tree, in a pond belonging to a shrimp farm, in the mangroves near the Monterrico beach, in Escuintla, Guatemala. The Roadside Hawk (Rupornis magnirostris), which is found from northern Mexico south to Argentina, is one of the most widespread raptors of the neotropics. This species shows considerable geographic variation across its wide distribution, with 12 currently recognized subspecies. Most of the subspecies are similar to one another, being gray above, with a grey head, yellow cere, banded tail and tight rufous banding from the breast to the vent. A few subspecies are more distinctive, however, such as saturatus, a brown and rufous subspecies found from Bolivia south to Argentina in drier Chaco forest, and gracilis, a brown, streaky subspecies found on islands off the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. The Roadside Hawk is so named due to its preference for the edges of forest it occurs in many different environments, including the edges of tropical lowland forest, deciduous forest, and desert. The Roadside Hawk feeds on a variety of small prey including reptiles and small mammals, but mainly feeds on insects.
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