The white-tailed hawk (Geranoaetus albicaudatus) is a large bird of prey species found in tropical and subtropical environments of the Americas. Description The white-tailed hawk is a large, stocky hawk. It is close in size to the Swainson's (Buteo swainsoni) and red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis), its mean measurements falling slightly ahead of the first, and slightly behind the latter. It can attain a total length of and a wingspan of . A body mass of was reported in B. a. hysopodius and in B. a. colonus. Among standard measurements, the wing chord is , the tail is and the tarsus is . Adult birds are grey above and white below and on the rump, with faint pale grey or rufous barring. The short tail is white with a narrow black band near the end that is conspicuous in flight. A rusty-red shoulder patch is just as characteristic when the bird is sitting with wings closed. The wings are dark above, admixed with grey near the bases of the blackish primary remiges. The underwing is whitish, with indistinct brownish barring on the underwing coverts that extends onto the flanks and thighs. The iris is hazel, the cere is pale green, the beak is black with a horn-colored base, and the feet are yellow with black talons. Immature birds are somewhat darker than adults; they may appear nearly black in faint light, in particular individuals which have little white below. The wing lining is conspicuously spotted black-and-white; the rusty shoulder patch is absent in younger birds. The tail changes from brown with several dark bars to greyish with a hazy dark band as the birds approach maturity. The bare parts are colored much like in the adult. In the Southern Hemisphere winter, young birds are sometimes mistaken for migrant red-backed hawks (Geranoaetus polyosoma). Call Its call is a high-pitched cackling ke ke ke..., with a tinkling quality that reminds some of the bleating of a goat or the call of the laughing gull. Subspecies Three subspecies are known: Geranoaetus albicaudatus hypospodius – coastal Texas and the Rio Grande Valley through Middle America to northern Colombia and western Venezuela. Intermediate in size and coloration. No dark morph. Geranoaetus albicaudatus colonus – Eastern Colombia to Suriname south to the mouth of the Amazon River, extending into the Caribbean. Small and pale. Dark morph is ashy grey all over, except for the tail and underwing