Buteo ridgwayi
Silhouette: Lauren Anderson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
Ridgway's hawk (Buteo ridgwayi) is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae endemic to the island of Hispaniola (both Haiti and the Dominican Republic) in the Caribbean. It is classified as Critically Endangered because of habitat destruction and human persecution in the Dominican Republic; however, due to conservation efforts, the population is now increasing.
It is named in honour of the ornithologist Robert Ridgway. B. ridgwayi is a medium-sized, compact hawk, measuring 36–41 cm long. The adult has brown-grey upperparts and greyish barred underparts, with a reddish-brown wash, rufous-tinged thighs, and a black-and-white barred tail. The male is more grey than the female, and the legs and the base of bill are yellow.
Ridgway's hawk is an apex predator on Hispaniola, feeding on rodents, bats, centipedes, birds, anoles, skinks, frogs, and snakes. It nests in the crowns of tall trees, such as Roystonea borinquena, with nest-building in December through June, and egg-laying in January to June. The clutch size is 1 to 3 eggs. Most pairs raise 1 to 2 young, though 3 have been reported.
Ridgway's hawk's original breeding range... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Haitises National Park | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Likely
About 60% of wildlife watchers report a Ridgway's Hawk sighting in Los Haitises National Park on a given day, based on 358 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 13th most-seen of the 106 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May and November–December
In those months about 70% of wildlife watchers report a Ridgway's Hawk in Los Haitises National Park on a given day, against about 50% in June, August and October, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Ridgway's Hawk sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Los Haitises National Park, in our data
Los Haitises National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Ridgway's Hawk sightings: about 60% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Ridgway's Hawk is recorded against all the birds logged in Los Haitises National Park (358 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
