Crane Hawk

Crane Hawk
Crane Hawk
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Falconiformes
(or Accipitriformes)
Family: Accipitridae
Subfamily: Circinae
Genus: Geranospiza
Kaup, 1847
Species: G. caerulescens
Binomial name
Geranospiza caerulescens
(Vieillot, 1817)

The Crane Hawk (Geranospiza caerulescens) is a species of bird of prey in the Accipitridae family. It is monotypic within the genus Geranospiza.[citation needed] It is found in Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Australia. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical mangrove forests, and subtropical or tropical swamps.

The Crane Hawk has very long legs which it uses to extract prey from crevices in trees.[1] It can pull tree frogs from inside bromeliads and nestlings from tree holes.[1][2] As an example of convergent evolution, it is very similar to the African Harrier Hawk, Polyboroides typus.[2]


References

  1. ^ a b Wells, Kentwood David (2007). The ecology & behavior of amphibians. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226893341. 
  2. ^ a b Mark Collins, ed (1990). The Last Rain Forests. Mitchell Beazley. ISBN 9780855337896. 

External links