Belize Biodiversity Information System NAME - Northern Harrier FAMILY - Accipitridae SCIENTIFIC NAME - Circus cyaneus hudsonius SYNONYMS - Falco cyaneus- Linnaeus 1766 REFERENCES - 1 and 2 National abundance, Conservation or Economic Status Reference Winter visitor - migrant. 14 Winter visitor - migrant. 3 Insufficient information, uncertain 13 Rare: low density, unlikely to be seen, few localities 13 PIF-2 Pri. 7, most winter n. Mexico 12 PIF Trend: Possible Decline 12 U.S. Migratory Bird Treaty 10 District Reference Belize 4 Cayo 5 Administrative Unit Occurrence Temporal Reference Cave's Branch Dry season 6 Private land, see comments Sighting 9 Private land, see comments Dry season 6 Private land, see comments 5 Private land, see comments 7 Private land, see comments 8 Government land 8 Hydrologic Association Reference Belize River 5 Elevation Reference 1-200 m 11 1-200 m 9 1:50,000 Quadrangle Reference 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 30' to 88 45' 8 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 10' to 88 30' 11 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 10' to 88 30' 4 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 10' to 88 30' 8 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 00' to 88 15' 7 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 45' to 89 00' 5 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 30' to 88 45' 6 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 00' to 88 10' 7 17 00' to 17 15'; 88 30' to 88 45' 6 17 45' to 18 00'; 89 00' to 89 15' 9 17 45' to 18 00'; 88 45' to 89 00' 9 Holdridge Life Zone Reference Subtropical moist 9 Subtropical moist 11 General Distribution Comments 14* Rare northern semideciduous moist forest. Rare southern moist-wet evergreen broadleaf forests. Uncommon coastal/low-lands savannas, inc. marshy areas. 8* Airport Camp; Big Falls Rice Farm 7* Belize 6* Big Falls Rice Farm 5* Banana Bank Ranch 3* Winter visitor, rare in northern hardwood forests and fewer than five records in southern hardwood forests. References 1 A.O.U. 1983. Checklist of North American Birds. 6th Ed. 2 A.O.U. 1985, 1987, 1989. 35th-37th Supplements. 3 Wood, D.S.,R. C. Leberman, and D. Weyer. 1986. Checklist of Birds of Belize. Carnegie Museum of Natural History Special Publication 12. 4 Miller, B. W., 1994. Belize Christmas Bird Counts, Twenty Year Summary. in prep. 5 Duncan, M., W. Duncan. 1993. Banana Bank, Nov. 1, Checklist provided in lit. 6 Weyer, D. 1984. Diurnal Birds of Prey of Belize. The Hawk Trust. Vol. 14 pp.23 - 39. 7 Russell, S. M. 1964. A Distributional Study of the Birds of British Honduras. Ornithological Monographs No. 1, A.O.U. 8 Hallchurch, T.T., compiler. 1982. Exercise King Vulture Belize 23 Feb.- 16 March. Unpub. report for the British Army Bird Watching Society. 9 Robbins, Chandler. 1996. U.S.F.& Wildlife Service Wintering Bird Surveys for Belize. Unpublished data provided by C. Robbins. 10 Title 50 Code of Federal Regulations, Subchapter B., Part 10.13: List of Migratory Birds. U.S. Government Printing Office: 1985 0-488-794. (Lists all species of migratory birds protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (16 U.S.C. 703-711). 11 Miller, B. W. 1997. Belize Christmas Bird Count Summary 1970-1995. Data from American Birds Vol. 28-50 including 1973-1996. 12 Working Group, Partners in Flight. 1992. Needs Assessment: Monitoring Migratory Birds. Report for Neotropical Migratory Bird Program 13 Miller, B.W., C.M. Miller. 1997. Avian Risk Assessment for Belize, Species at Risk and of Conservation Concern. Report to Programme for Belize/TNC Wings of America Program. 14 Garcia, J., S. Matola, M. Meadows, and C. Wright. 1994. A Checklist of the Birds of Belize. WWF-US. 35p.
Wildlife Conservation Society
Ministry of Natural Resources' Land Information Centre
01/19/98