Zone-tailed Hawk

How to find it

Scan the sky for vultures. The hawk often soars among Turkey Vultures with wings raised in a V, so check circling birds one by one. The sure clues are the banded tail, the feathered head, and yellow legs and cere when it is closer. Check thermals where vultures and hawks gather overhead. Also watch open ground, since it hunts low over it. One birding blogger saw one over open fields where Dickcissels and swallows were feeding. A northern route through Arenal, the border wetlands and Tenorio foothill forest, with boat excursions, is listed as one where it can be seen.

How to recognise it

Adults are mostly blackish. The flight feathers are barred and look gray from afar.

The tail has three or four bands, white from below, and the second band from the tip is the broadest. The cere and legs are yellow, which you see only when the bird is closer.

Adults are about 47 to 55 cm long with a wingspan near 1.2 m (range-wide figures).

Against a Turkey Vulture, look for a broader, dark-feathered head, a slimmer body, slightly narrower wings and tail, a dark trailing edge under the wing and bulging inner flight feathers. The pale tail bands are not always visible, so use the other marks too.

What it sounds like

Recording: Sebastián de Jesús Herrera Buenfil, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

The hawk soars with wings raised in a V and sometimes rocks from side to side on the wind. This copies the Turkey Vulture and may fool the small prey it hunts, which it then attacks with sudden dives. It eats birds up to the size of a quail, mammals, lizards and amphibians, and rarely fish.

It usually flies alone but often joins other raptors on rising warm air. It also hunts low over the ground. Birds defend their nests fiercely, even attacking animals as big as Golden Eagles.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica a source citing Stiles and Skutch says it prefers open country with scattered trees or scrub, especially near swamps or streams, and often flies low over the ground.

It is recorded in the Central Valley, where one guide lists it among the raptors of green spaces, and in the Turrialba area on the Caribbean side of the valley. Breeding in Middle America has been reported only in northwest Costa Rica.

Similar birds

The Turkey Vulture is the main look-alike. The hawk is smaller, with a broader, feathered dark head, a dark trailing edge under the wing, and yellow cere and feet. Costa Rican birders may also take it for the Common Black Hawk, since the two are both very dark and often share habitat. The Zone-tailed is smaller and shows more white bars on the tail.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rica's official Spanish name, Gavilán Colifajeado, refers to the banded tail. Other names used across Latin America include Aguililla Aura, Aguililla Colachinchada and Aguililla Negra, and a Costa Rican wildlife-rescue guide lists it as Aguililla Aura.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rican list gives it the status R, M, and the IUCN rates the species Least Concern.

Photography tips

It usually flies alone but often joins other raptors on rising warm air, so check thermals with vultures and hawks overhead. Courtship dives are the showpiece, but a patient look at circling vultures is the best start.