Black-collared Hawk

How to find it

Start in the northern plains near Los Chiles and go out by boat, which lets you approach the riverside trees where it perches. Look on high open perches and overhanging branches above the river, where it scans for fish. Watch the sky too, since it is sometimes seen soaring above the wetlands. Boat trips on the Medio Queso river near Los Chiles give a chance at it. One was found near a boat dock after a boat trip, so scan the dock area as well as the river. Check fence posts and any exposed perch with a view of water.

How to recognise it

Adults are mostly rusty cinnamon with a pale buff head, a black crescent on the upper breast and black flight feathers. That mix is the quickest way to pick one out.

The wings are very broad and the tail is short. In flight the tail barely extends past the back edge of the wings.

The bird is about 51 cm long and weighs around 650 grams.

Young birds look quite different. They are brown above and dull buff below, with a whitish head marked by dark streaks and a large dusky patch on the chest.

What it sounds like

Recording: Kozue Kawakami, CC BY-SA 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

The hawk perches on almost any object with a view of water, from a fence post to a high branch, and it often glides on flat wings. To feed, it dives feet first from the air with wings half closed and seizes prey at the water surface, rarely putting in more than its toes and legs. Short spines on its toes help it hold slippery fish, as in the Osprey. It mostly takes fish, but also frogs, small birds, mammals and large insects. Over the wetlands it is sometimes seen soaring.

Where it lives

It lives near clearings and slow, shallow, still water in flat country. That ranges from wooded to quite open areas and includes riverside forest.

Everything known of its Costa Rican range is low. The northern refuge lies at roughly 98 to 328 feet above sea level, and a sighting in Palo Verde National Park was at only 6 metres.

Historically it is known from the northwest lowlands, the northern lowlands around Río Frío, the Caribbean at Tortuguero and the Corcovado basin in the south Pacific.

When to see it

A Costa Rican nesting study puts the breeding cycle at 8 to 11 months, starting in the dry season around late January and ending near November. In the northern plains a juvenile was fed at a nest on 25 April, so birds can be found nesting from the dry season into the wet season.

Similar birds

Few other Costa Rican raptors share this look of rusty body, pale head and black chest band. A Bolivian field guide sheet calls the adult conspicuous and distinctive. If you want a comparison, check it against the Savanna Hawk, which also occurs in Costa Rica.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rican sources use two names together: Gavilán de Ciénega and Gavilán Pescador, which means fishing hawk. The first refers to marshes and the second to how it hunts.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it as a resident (R), and globally it is Least Concern, though uncommon and local and dependent on wetlands.

Photography tips

Photo tour operators run private boat sessions in the northern wetlands and list this hawk among the raptors and flyovers to expect. Boats let you approach the riverside trees where it perches. Scan tall trees at the edge of seasonal lagoons, where nests have been found.