Leucopternis is a Neotropical genus of birds of prey in the family Accipitridae. They are associated with tropical forest, and are uncommon or rare. Their plumage is largely black or gray above and white below, and they have distinctive orange ceres.
Species
Traditionally, Leucopternis contains significantly more species than given here. However, as the genus probably was polyphyletic, moves of species to other genera were proposed and have been accepted by the American Ornithologists' Union's South American Check-list Committee and North American Check-list Committee, except that the South American Committee placed the former L. lacernulatus in the existing genus Buteogallus instead of in a new genus Amadonastur by itself. The other species were placed in the genera Cryptoleucopteryx, Morphnarchus, Pseudastur, and Buteogallus. According to this treatment, the species remaining in Leucopternis are:
Genus Leucopternis – Kaup, 1847 – three species
Common name
Scientific name and subspecies
Range
Size and ecology
IUCN status and estimated population
Semiplumbeous hawk
Leucopternis semiplumbeus Lawrence, 1861
Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, and Panama
Size:
Habitat:
Diet:
LC
Black-faced hawk
Leucopternis melanops (Latham, 1790)
lowland Peru north of the Amazon and northeastern Ecuador to Venezuela, southern Colombia, Brazil north of the Amazon and the Guyanas.
Size:
Habitat:
Diet:
LC
White-browed hawk
Leucopternis kuhli Bonaparte, 1850
southern Amazon Basin in eastern Peru, Bolivia and northern Brazil
Size:
