Buteo jamaicensis

Includes B. harlani, formerly regarded as a separate species (AOU 1998). See Mindell (1983) for information on the taxonomic status of harlani.

The phylogenetic status of the nominal subspecies needs to be evaluated with genetic techniques; do the geographic color variations represent distinct evolutionary lineages?

Large range in North and Central America; increasing or stable populations in most areas of the U.S.and Canada; no significant threats on a global scale.

BREEDS: western and central Alaska, central Yukon, western Mackenzie, northern Saskatchewan, northern Manitoba, central Ontario, southern Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia south to southeastern Alaska, Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon, southern Texas, Gulf Coast, and Florida, and highlands of Middle America to Costa Rica and western Panama (east to Canal Zone); in Tres Marias and Socorro islands off western Mexico; and in northern Bahamas (Grand Bahama, Abaco, Andros), Greater Antilles, and northern Lesser Antilles (Saba south to Nevis) (AOU 1983). WINTERS: southern Canada south through remainder of breeding range, also in lowlands of Central America. In the U.S., most abundant in winter in California-western Nevada and in the farming and ranching region of the central U.S. (Root 1988). Accidental in England and Bermuda (AOU 1983).