Roadside Hawk: Rincon, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica, December 2022 — On our way back from the Rincon River Bridge and our search for the Yellow-billed Cotinga, still before breakfast, we came up on this hawk sitting on the wires by the road. It is, of course, a Roadside Hawk…the most common hawk of the lowland tropical Americas…with a range from the US border (it is occasionally seen in extreme South Texas) to Northern Argentina and Uruguay. Costa Rica has two of the 12 recognized subspecies. This is the one that inhabits southwest Costa Rica and the adjacent Panama. Seeing this bird, so close and so cooperative, only a yards from the windows of our tourist van, we had a brief discussion of what it might be called if there were no roads…or what it might have been called when there were no roads. It is certainly a hawk of the openings and edges, and is, therefore, closely associated with roads, which are often the first openings in any forest where man travels or lives. I said they were all thinking backwards…roads are called roads because that is where you see the Roadside Hawks from. 🙂 (Okay, I know, but remember it was still before breakfast.) Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. (These photos were actually taken across the width of the van through an open window, so we were indeed pretty close.) Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th.