Diet and Foraging

White Hawk feeds on a wide variety of vertebrate and invertebrate prey items. At least at some sites, the diet consists primarily of reptiles, mainly snakes (and perhaps especially coral snakes; Slud 1964), but also lizards (including basiliscus; Van Tyne 1950) and frogs (Haverschmidt 1968). Other prey recorded include large insects and other arthropods (Coleoptera: Passalidae; Orthoptera: Locustidae; Myriopoda: Chilopoda; larval Lepidoptera; Van Tyne 1950, Haverschmidt 1968), and a variety of birds: Great Tinamou (Tinamus major), owls, Blue-crowned Motmot (Momotus coeruliceps), toucans (Ramphastos), White-collared Manakin (Manacus candei), Red-capped Manakin (Pipra mentalis), and a wren (Brown and Amadon 1968, Lamm 1974, Sick 1993, Komar 2003). At one site in the Peten, Guatemala, over half of all taken prey were reptiles, followed in numerical importance by mammals, birds, insects, and amphibians.