Great Black Hawk (Buteogallus urubitinga), family Accipitridae, order Accipitriformes, and Southern Crested Caracara (Caracara p. plancus) get into a fracas!!!, family Falconidae, order Falconiformes, Pantanal, Brazil

This leggy bird is known as Daggett's eagle (Buteogallus daggetti), a bird of prey from the Late Pleistocene of southwest North America.

Living between about 2.5 million and 13,000 years ago, it would have stood around 80cm tall (2′7″), with a wingspan of almost 2m (6′6″) and a  fairly hefty body weight of 3kg (6.6lbs). Its feet had less grasping ability than other eagles but it also had particularly strong leg muscles, suggesting it was much better adapted for walking around on the ground.

With its large size, long legs, and terrestrial habits it seems to have convergently evolved to fill the same ecological niche as the modern secretarybird -- a grassland-dwelling walking predator that hunted on foot, kicking and stomping small prey animals like snakes, lizards, and rodents.

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Savanna Hawk (Buteogallus meridionalis), family Accipitridae, Trinidad

Paintings 13 through 16 of my volleyball hawks commission.  Only 4 more to go!!! As usual, these are watercolor and gouache on hot press watercolor paper. 

Common black hawk, 4x6 inches

Zone-tailed hawk, 4.5x6.5 inches

White-tailed hawk, 5.5x5 inches

Finally, here are the last 4 paintings from my volleyball hawks commission.  This project was quite a hassle at times, but all in all I’m very happy with how these 20 little paintings turned out.  I’ll probably make another post later with all the hawks together, but for now enjoy these final four avian athletes! These are all watercolor and gouache on hot press watercolor paper. 

Hawaiian hawk, 5.5x4 inches

Juvenile great black hawk, 4x6 inches

Roadside hawk, 5.5x4 inches