Black Hawk

For all you birders, from our friends at the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center:

"One of our remote wildlife cameras caught what appears to be an adult common black hawk (Buteogallus anthracinus) drinking or fishing in the perennial Modesta Spring. It is a stocky black bird of prey with very broad wings and a broad white tail band. The bare skin of the legs and cere (the featherless part of the face at the base of the bill) is yellow. Black hawks inhabit wooded canyons and riverside habitats throughout the southwest and migrate south of the U.S. border during the winter. They feed mainly on aquatic creatures such as frogs, small fish, crabs, and crayfish, thus the importance of the spring in attracting this individual. Although active nests are known in the Fort Davis area, this individual might represent a previously unknown nesting pair. The species is vulnerable to disturbance near its nesting sites and seems to be declining in the United States."