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,Raposo do Amaral et al. (2006), Mindell and Lerner (2008) moves of species to other genera were proposedRaposo do Amaral et al. (2009) and have been accepted by the American Ornithologists' Union's South American Check-list CommitteeRemsen et al. (2012) and North American Check-list Committee,Chesser et al. (2012) 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:
Notes
References
Lerner & Mindell (2008). Molecular phylogenetics of the buteonine birds of prey (Accipitridae). Auk 125: 304–315. Raposo do Amaral, Miller, Silveira, Bermingham, & Wajntal (2006). Polyphyly of the hawk genera Leucopternis and Buteogallus (Aves, Accipitridae): multiple habitat shifts during the Neotropical buteonine diversification. BMC Evol. Biol. 6: 10