Hook-billed Kite Chondrohierax uncinatus Scientific name definitions

The Hook-billed Kite is a distinctive member of the Neotropical raptor community. Its plumage is highly variable, but it is generally banded rufous or gray below, with a gray head, and brown or gray back (although dark morphs also occur). Most striking is the variation in its bill size, which does not vary geographically, but is bimodally distributed in many parts of the range, with large-billed and small-billed individuals (large bills being twice as big as small ones) in both sexes and all ages. This bill dimorphism is likely an evolutionary solution to allow the Hook-billed Kite to feed on different species and size classes of tree snails; its preferred prey.

The Hook-billed Kite is unobtrusive but common to fairly common across most of its range, but seems very rare or absent in some portions, with reports from countries such as El Salvador considered to represent vagrants. Its frail, see-through stick nests have been found in many portions of its range, but the details of its reproductive biology are poorly studied in most populations. Long believed to be entirely sedentary, the past few decades have uncovered what appears to be a geographic "mosaic" of populations exhibiting different migration strategies, from long-distance to altitudinal and from facultative to obligate migrants. Recent studies on its reproductive behavior in Belize have made especially important contributions to our knowledge.