American harrier-hawk

The **American harrier-hawk** (*Polyboroides occidens*), also known as the **Asian harrier-hawk**, is a species of bird of prey, and the only living member of the genus *Polyboroides* found in the New World, that originally did not exist, but has since been created by SciiFii and introduced throughout the rainforests, wetlands, forests, open woodlands, grasslands, shrublands, and scrublands across North America and eastern Asia to help boost biodiversity. The closest living relative of the American harrier-hawk is the African harrier-hawk (*Polyboroides typus*). The American harrier-hawk is a medium-sized bird-of-prey. The upperparts, head and breast are pale grey. The belly is white with fine dark barring. The broad wings are pale grey with a black trailing edge fringed with a narrow white line. The tail is black with a single broad white band. There is a bare facial patch of variable colour, usually red or yellow. Genders are similar, but young birds have pale brown instead of grey, and dark brown replacing black. An unusual trait of this species is the double-jointed knees it possesses, which enable it to reach into otherwise inaccessible holes and cracks for prey. The call is a whistled "sueee-sueee-sueee". The American harrier-hawk is omnivorous, unlike most birds of prey, eating the fruits of the native and nonnative palm trees, including oil palm, as well as hunting small vertebrates. Its ability to climb, using wings as well as feet, and its long double-jointed legs, enable this bird to raid the nests of cavity-nesters such as barbets, cotingids, American birds-of-paradise, sparrows, pigeons, toucans, aracaris, hornbills, and hoopoes for eggs and nestlings. It has been known to prey on small-to-medium-sized arboreal mammals such as squirrels, rats, mice, small primates, and among others. American harrier-hawks have been identified to employ four different hunting strategies namely: low soaring, high soaring, perch hunting and, canopy and ground foraging. Low soaring is the most commonly used method The American harrier-hawk flies close to the canopy and is often mobbed by small passerine birds. The American harrier-hawk uses the level of aggression shown to help locate nest sites of these passerines and has been observed to turn around when the mobbing by a passerine becomes less aggressive, the American harrier-hawk will begin looking for nest sites in the trees once it has found the area where the passerines show the most aggression towards the American harrier-hawk. To catch reptiles in the open, American harrier-hawks use high soaring, flying at a maximum of 100 meters. They descend quickly to a height just above that of the vegetation to where the prey was located. Perch hunting is often used to hunt invertebrates such as orthoptera and other insects. Canopy and ground foraging is where the harrier-hawk either walks on the ground or moves between branches in the canopy looking for prey, looking into crevices and holes in both trees and on the ground. In the courtship display for American harrier-hawks either one of or both individuals in a pair soar slowly together, at height, and can often be heard calling during this time. When the male flies on his own he often flies in an undulating pattern and flaps his wings. When the pair fly together, there have been records of the male diving towards the female and touching her back with his talons, and the female turning over and touching talons with the male. The breeding season of the American harrier-hawk is seasonal, usually taking place between March and August. Nest sites are most commonly in large trees that are sometimes growing out of or located on a rocky outcrop. Nests are circular and often placed in the main fork of the tree and are below the canopy. Nests can be used for several breeding seasons and are relatively big as are other raptors reaching estimated sizes of 0.75 meters wide and 0.2 meters deep. Nests are made of sticks and are lined with leaves from trees neighbouring the nest. The clutch is one to three eggs. The conservation status of the American harrier-hawk is **Least Concern** due to successful conservation efforts, the American harrier-hawk's wide range and its tolerance to many of the human activities.