Chilean Hawk

The Chilean Hawk (Accipiter (bicolor) chilensis) is a bird of prey species belonging to the typical hawks. It breeds in Andes forests from central Chile and western Argentina south to Tierra del Fuego, from sea level to 2,700 m altitude (though birds are rarely observed above 1,000 m). Some winter apparently in the lowlands of NW Argentina.

It is sometimes considered to be a subspecies of its northern relative the Bicolored Hawk (A. bicolor), and sometimes a distinct species. The two show differences in habitat preference and have allopatric distributions. But the situation is complicated by the subspecies pileatus, which is intermediate in plumage between bicolor and chilensis, and has been variously assigned to either species by those that consider them distinct.