Harris' Hawk are medium-sized hawks with the long broad wings of a buteo, Harris hawks are heavy for their size. The tail is long and rounded. The lores (the area between the eyes and the mandible) are bare, as is the cere containing the nostrils, like a falcon's. The bill is strongly hooked, but unnotched and the talons are slender and strongly curved. Males and females are alike except for size, the female being noticeably larger, as with most raptors.
Harris hawks are basically a warm dark brown, with the shoulders, under wing coverts and thighs a bright chestnut. The tail is black, with coverts, crissum and a 1-inch band on the tail are white. In flight, the tail appears white with a broad black band. The eyes are dark brown, the cere, eyelids and legs are yellow. The beak is light at the base, turning bluish grey at the tip. Immature birds are like the adults, but are streaked on the breast and may be confused with hawks like the red-shouldered or ferruginous hawk.
They eat mainly rodents like woodrats and ground squirrels, but also takes birds including ducks, quail, doves and even rails and gallinules. They may occasionally take reptiles and carrion. In certain regions of Mexico, their primary food is lizards.
Harris Hawks gather in large flocks in the fall and hunt together across the fringes of their range. Hunting is often during crepuscular twilight and often involves high-speed dashes through thorny thickets, flushing small mammals and birds. Warm weather finds them soaring. Perch hunting is another favorite method and they will perch on almost anything including low bushes, tall trees and utility poles. When perches are few they have been observed stacking, standing on each other's backs even three high. Unlike other raptors, they regularly cooperate in hunting. Similar to cooperating mammals, they often flush their prey and chase it toward the hunting partner.
Uniquely, Harris Hawks are polyandrous. One female often has two or three males. The menage-a-tua nest together and hunt together. It is unknown whether the female breeds with both males, although it would make sense if the father of the chicks was not known. Breeding takes place on the ground and both males nest with the female, helping to feed the setting female and the chicks.
The nest is a shallow, compact platform of sticks lined with weeds and roots. It is usually placed on top of a mesquite bush or in a branching yucca or saguaro, usually less than 30 feet off of the ground. The major predators of the Harris Hawk are the coyote and the bobcat, which will pull down any nest they can reach.
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