Buteogallus meridionalis
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The savanna hawk (Buteogallus meridionalis) is a large raptor found in open savanna and swamp edges. It was formerly placed in the genus Heterospizias. It breeds from Panama and Trinidad south to Bolivia, Uruguay and central Argentina. There are also reports of it in California, from 1973 in Alameda County and from 1974 in San Diego County.
The savanna hawk is 46–61 cm (18–24 in) in length and weighs 845 g (29.8 oz). The adult has a rufous body with grey mottling above and fine black barring below. The flight feathers of the long broad wings are black, and the tail is banded black and white. The legs are yellow. The call is a loud scream keeeeru.
Immature birds are similar to the adults but have darker, duller upperparts, paler underparts with coarser barring, and a whitish supercilium. This species perches very vertically, and its legs are strikingly long. The savanna hawk feeds on small mammals, small birds, lizards, snakes, toads, frogs, eels, other fish, crabs, roots, spiders, and large insects (such as grasshoppers). It usually sits on an open high perch from which it swoops on its prey, but will also hunt on foot, and several birds may... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Emas National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | San Lorenzo Protected Forest | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 4 | Iberá National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 5 | Serra da Canastra National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 6 | El Impenetrable National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 7 | Sierra de la Macarena National Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 8 | Caroni Swamp | 🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago | |
| 9 | Serra dos Órgãos National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 10 | El Palmar National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 11 | Machalilla National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 12 | Itatiaia National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 13 | Anavilhanas National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 14 | Amboró National Park | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 15 | Chapada Diamantina National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 16 | Tayrona National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 17 | Chapada dos Guimarães National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 18 | Parque Natural Metropolitano | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 19 | Piedras Blancas National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guayaquil | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 2 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 3 | Barranquilla | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 4 | Santa Cruz de la Sierra | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 5 | Curitiba | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 6 | Goiânia | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 7 | Porto Alegre | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Campo Grande | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 9 | Belo Horizonte | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 10 | Rio de Janeiro | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | São Paulo Zoo | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Parque de las Leyendas | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 3 | Aviario Nacional de Colombia | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 4 | Bioparque Los Ocarros | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 5 | Bioparque Wakatá | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 6 | Mangal das Garças | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 7 | El Nispero Zoo | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 8 | Parque dos Falcões | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 9 | Zoológico de Canindé | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 10 | GüiráOga | 🇦🇷 Argentina |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Savanna Hawk sighting in San Lorenzo Protected Forest on a given day, based on 32 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 84th most-seen of the 249 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Savanna Hawk in San Lorenzo Protected Forest on a given day, against about 10% in March–April, June–August and October, the lowest months. That is one of San Lorenzo Protected Forest's wettest months, with about 380 mm of rain against 65 mm in February.
Between 3 and 6 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Savanna Hawk sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 19
Of the 19 parks where we can rate Savanna Hawk sightings, San Lorenzo Protected Forest ranks 3rd at about 20%. The best odds are in Emas National Park (Brazil, about 60%) and Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas (Brazil, about 60%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Savanna Hawk is recorded against all the birds logged in San Lorenzo Protected Forest (32 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.
