Figure 97. California’s second Common Black-Hawk, sketched at Oasis, Riverside County, 28 March 1997, was observed on only seven occasions during its six-week stay (1997-070; Brenda D. Smith-Patten).

 

 

 

 

 

COMMON BLACK-HAWK Buteogallus anthracinus (Deppe, 1830)

Accepted: 2 (22%)	Treated in Appendix H: yes
Not accepted: 7	CBRC review: all records
Not submitted/reviewed: 0	Color image: page H-16

This hawk ranges from northern South America to the southwestern United States, where migratory birds breed in southern and central Arizona, southern and northeastern New Mexico, western Texas, and rarely in southwestern Utah and possibly southern Nevada. The species occurs casually elsewhere in the West and in Texas away from breeding areas. Records from Minnesota and Florida may pertain to escapees. An undocumented spring report from northwestern Baja California (Short and Crossin 1967) did not adequately eliminate the possibility of a Zone-tailed Hawk (Howell et al. 2001).

California’s two CBRC-endorsed Common Black-Hawks were both adults in Riverside County: one at Thousand Palms Oasis 13 April 1985 (Daniels et al. 1989), and the other at Oasis, at the northwestern corner of the Salton Sea, 28 March–2 May 1997 (Rottenborn and Morlan 2000; Figure 97). Appendix H provides information on two accepted records from 2004 and 2005 involving birds that wintered in San Joaquin and Sonoma Counties.

The Common Black-Hawk’s low acceptance rate largely reflects the situation touched on above, in which sightings thought to involve this species are not documented thoroughly enough to rule out entirely other large, dark raptors, particularly the Zone-tailed Hawk.