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Mississippi Kite: Small kite, dark gray upperparts, pale gray underparts and head. Eyes are red. Upperwings are dark gray with pale gray patches. Tail is long and black. Feeds on large flying insects. Bouyant flight with steady wing beats, alternates several wing strokes with short to long glides.
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White-tailed Kite: Small hawk with gray upperparts, black shoulders, and white face and underparts. Eyes are red, bill is black. Underwings are white and gray with dark patches at bend. Tail is square, pale gray, and shorter than folded wings. Legs and feet are gray. Soars on thermals and updrafts.
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Hook-billed Kite: Unusual tropical kite with long paddle-shaped wings. Sluggish, retiring kite that generally remains concealed within foliage of trees. Occurs in two morphs, gray and black, which is very rare to Texas. Underparts and underwings are heavily barred. Tail is banded. Yellow legs, feet.
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Northern Harrier: Large hawk with gray upperparts, distinct white rump, and white underparts with spotted breast. Hooked bill is dark, yellow at base. Eyes are yellow. Wings are long, gray above, and white below with black tips. Legs, feet are yellow. Alternates several deep wing beats with glides.
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Sharp-shinned Hawk: Small hawk with blue-gray upperparts and rufous bars on white underparts. Eyes are dark red. Wings are short and rounded. Tail is long and squared with heavy bars. Legs and feet are yellow. Flight consists of rapid wing beats followed by a short glide. Often soars on thermals.
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Cooper's Hawk: Medium, agile hawk with dark blue-gray back and white underparts with many fine rufous bars. Cap is darker than upperparts. Eyes are red. The tail is long with thick black-and-white bands. Legs and feet are yellow. Alternates rapid wing beats and short glides, often soars on thermals.
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Northern Goshawk: Large hawk with slate blue-gray to nearly black upperparts and very finely barred and streaked pale gray underparts. Head is dark with thick, white eyebrows and red eyes. Tail is paler gray with three or four dark bands. Alternates rapid wing beats with glides, soars on thermals.
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Common Black-Hawk: Large hawk, nearly all black with white patch just behind bill. Bill, legs and feet are bright orange-yellow. The tail is black with single, thick white band across the middle and a thin, white tip. Alternates deep steady wing beats with short to long glides. Soars on thermals.
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Zone-tailed Hawk: Large hawk, mostly black except for barred flight feathers, black-and-white banded tail. Eye-rings are gray. Bill, legs are yellow. Circles like a turkey vulture. Eats small rodents, birds. Soars and glides on thermals with wings lifted slightly above back, tilts from side to side.
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Roadside Hawk: This small, long legged tropical species common from Mexico to Argentina is casual in winter to the Rio Grande Valley. Gray-brown upperparts and rufous belly with white to buff coarse bars. Tail is banded with white tip. Flies with stiff, rapid wingbeats and hunts along roadsides.
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Gray Hawk: Small tropical hawk with uniformly pale gray upperparts and fine white barring on underparts. Cere is yellow. Tail is thickly banded black and white. Wing tips are rounded. Legs and feet are yellow. Bouyant, graceful flap-and-glide flight, soars on thermals often but not to great heights.
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White-tailed Hawk: Large hawk, dark gray upperparts and head, distinct brown wash on shoulders and back, and white rump. Breast is white; belly and undertail are white with inconspicuous, fine bars. Wings are dark gray above, paler below. Tail is white, broad black band near tip. Yellow legs, feet.
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Aplomado Falcon: Medium falcon with slate-gray upperparts, plain white breast. White, moustache-striped face has pale eyebrows joining at back of head. Belly and legs are cinnamon-brown. Long tail banded with white and black (or gray) stripes. Swift, direct flight with deep wing beats, also hovers.
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American Kestrel: Smallest North American hawk, has two distinct black facial stripes, rust-brown tail and back, slate-blue wings, black-spotted underparts. Eats bats, rodents, insects, frogs, small reptiles, and birds. Alternates several rapid wing beats with glides, also hovers. Soars on thermals.
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Merlin: Small falcon with blue-gray upperparts, white to pale brown underparts with dark streaks. Throat, eye-ring, line above eye are white. Dark gray bill, cere is yellow. Tail is brown or black barred with white tips. Pacific race is dark gray. Prairie race is light gray. Taiga race is a mixture.
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Peregrine Falcon: Medium robust falcon with blue-gray upperparts, plain breast, heavily barred sides, belly, and leggings. Head has a black hood and sideburns. Yellow fleshy eye ring. Yellow legs and feet. Feeds primarily on birds which it takes in midair after a steep, swift dive from above them.
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