The black-collared hawk (''Busarellus nigricollis'') is a species of bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. It is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

within the genus ''Busarellus''. It has a widespread range of presence, from western

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are subtropical or tropical moist lowland

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s, subtropical or tropical swamps, and swamps. The adult black-collared hawk has a more or less white head, tinged with buff, and with black shaft streaks on the crown. The body, above and below, and the mantle are bright cinnamon-rufous, paler on the chest. There is a black crescent on the upper breast. The back has scattered black shaft stripes; the flight and tail feathers are black with the base of the tail barred with rufous. The eyes are bright reddish brown, the cere and bill black, and the legs bluish white. Immatures are similar, but blotched with black, including on the crown, and the rufous barring on the tail is more extensive. The pale area on the chest is also more clearly marked. The upper surface of the wings is barred, and the eyes are brown. The nest is usually placed in a large tree, frequently near water, but sometimes in shade trees in coffee plantations or suburban areas. The nest is lined with green leaves. The female lays three to five eggs, dull white, spotted with pale yellow-brown or red-brown and a few darker freckles. There is no further information on its reproduction. The black-collared hawk lives on a diet mainly composed of

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% ...

. It also eats

water bug Waterbug or water bug can refer to any of several things: True bugs * The true water bugs (Nepomorpha), including such insects as giant water bugs, creeping water bugs and backswimmers * Various other aquatic true bugs, known collectively as ...

s and occasionally other large

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...

lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia al ...

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" '' Triadobatrachus'' is ...

snail A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class G ...

s, other molluscs,

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean gro ...

s, small birds and nestlings,

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the Order (biology), order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are roden ...

s and other small mammals. In the 1870s, Ridgeway wrote that ''Busarellus'' (then known as ''Ichthyoborus'') had the "general form and appearance of '' Buteogallus aequinoctialis''", but that it "is much more nearly related to the heliatine groups", in which he included '' Milvus'', '' Haliastur'', and '' Haliaaetus''. During the early-to-mid 20th century, ''Busarellus'' was conventionally placed near '' Buteogallus'' in taxonomic order. The black-collared hawk has the basal phalanges of the inner toe fused, which may be an adaptation to prevent the toe from bending back when catching prey. This feature is shared with '' Ictinia'' and with the group of true milvine kites and sea eagles (''Milvus'', ''Haliastur'', ''Haliaaetus'', and ''

Icthyophaga ''Icthyophaga'' or ''Ichthyophaga'' is a genus of six species of eagles, closely related to the sea eagles in the genus ''Haliaeetus''. In fact, some taxonomic authorities place this genus within ''Haliaeetus''. Both are native to southeastern ...

''). Research in molecular phylogenetics during the early 21st century indicates that there is a clear milvine–haliaetine clade that is related to a large group of buteonine hawks and their relatives. Within the buteonine group, ''Ictinia'' is near-basal, and ''Busarellus'' is a member of a clade shared with ''

Geranospiza The crane hawk (''Geranospiza caerulescens'') is a species of bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. It is monotypic within the genus ''Geranospiza''. Taxonomy The crane hawk used to be many species that were recently lumped into one. Those ...

'', '' Rostrhamus'', and '' Helicolestes''.

Gallery

Black-collared hawk (Busarellus nigricollis) immature.JPG, immature bird

Mato Grosso do Sul Mato Grosso do Sul () is one of the Midwestern states of Brazil. Neighboring Brazilian states are (from north clockwise) Mato Grosso, Goiás, Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Paraná. It also borders the countries of Paraguay, to the southwest, a ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Busarellus nigricollis -Miranda River, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil -flying-8 (2).jpg, Flying

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1264645

black-collared hawk The black-collared hawk (''Busarellus nigricollis'') is a species of bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. It is monotypic within the genus ''Busarellus''. It has a widespread range of presence, from western Mexico to Uruguay. Its natural hab ...

Birds of the Yucatán Peninsula Birds of Brazil Birds of prey of South America

Higher-level bird taxa restricted to the Neotropics Taxonomy articles created by Polbot