Gray-lined Hawk

How to find it

Start in southern Costa Rica, where birders see it most often. In open country, scan power poles and exposed treetops, where this hawk likes to perch. Roadside trees are worth checking too, since the Gray-lined Hawk hunts much as the northern Gray Hawk does from them. One visitor found a bird on top of a dead snag. Adults are easier to see on forest edges, in fragmented forest and on savanna trees than inside continuous forest. On a trip we build, places such as Jacó and Monteverde, both in Puntarenas, are where photographs show visitors might meet it.

How to recognise it

Adults are light gray overall, with gray lines across the upper breast and belly. The back is finely barred gray and the rump is white. The tail is black with two wide white bands. The eyes are dark brown, and the cere and legs are bright yellow. It is a small, compact hawk.

Young birds look very different. They are brown with whitish mottling on the back and wings, and cream breasts with brown splotches. Young Gray-lined Hawks have lightly barred thighs.

In southern Pacific Costa Rica, adults show fine light gray barring on the upperparts. Compared with the northern Gray Hawk, the southern bird has a few more gray bars on its upperparts and a slightly wider white tail band.

What it sounds like

Recording: keesgroenendijk, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

This hawk eats mainly reptiles, but it also takes birds, rodents and big insects. It usually hunts by dropping from a tree branch. A visitor in Costa Rica described it sitting up high, then swooping down on lizards, snakes, frogs, birds and small mammals.

For a Buteo it has short wings, and it flies fast and agile. A Costa Rican source says it sometimes forms pairs or small flocks, and occasionally groups of 20 or more birds.

Where it lives

Across its range this hawk uses lowland to mid-elevation habitats: broken forest, forest edges, river and gallery forest, savannas, and pastures with trees.

In Costa Rica it lives in the southwest and south of the country. A Costa Rican source gives its range as the central Pacific south to the south of the country. Where there is forest, adults mostly stay in the canopy.

When to see it

A Costa Rican source says it breeds from December to May. This is the dry season, and nesting birds are easier to notice then.

Similar birds

The northern Gray Hawk is the close lookalike, with the same Spanish name. The Gray-lined Hawk has a few more gray bars on the upperparts and a slightly wider white tail band, and the alarm calls differ. Immature Roadside Hawks are buffier underneath, with reddish bars on the thighs and pale eyes, while young Gray-lined Hawks have lightly barred thighs.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Ricans use the names gavilán, gavilán pollero and gavilán gris for this hawk. Gavilán pollero is also used for other hawks, such as the Roadside Hawk, so the name can cause confusion.

Status and conservation

On the Costa Rican list it is a resident (R), uncommon to locally common, and the species is rated Least Concern.

Photography tips

Adults mostly stay in the forest canopy where there is forest, so aim for edges, fragmented forest and savanna trees, where they are easier to see. Power poles and exposed treetops give open views of a perched bird.