The adult Galapagos hawk is generally a sooty brownish-black color; the crown being slightly blacker than the back.

Its feathers of the mantle are partially edged with paler brown, grey, or buff, with their white bases showing to some extent.

The eyes are brown, the beak greyish black, paler at its base which is known as the 'cere', legs, and feet are yellow.

Their young appear different from adults because they are darker and have camouflage which aids them in remaining protected from potential predators until they are fully grown.

This hawk lives mainly on insects such as locusts and giant centipedes, as well as racer snakes (Alsophis spp.

[5] This predator has also been observed to take seabirds such as Audubon's Shearwaters (Puffinus lherminieri), and eggs and nestlings of swallow-tailed gulls (Creagrus furcatus).

It prefers to perch on a lava outcrop or high branch when hunting, yet it also spends some of its time on the ground.

[15] Fearless of man, the young especially being quite curious, often wandering around human camps and scavenging for scraps of food.

[2][4] The mating pair is together for the majority of the time at the prime of the egg-laying season and usually stays close to the nesting site.

Juvenile hawks will not enter the territorial breeding areas until they reach the age of three, becoming sexually mature.

This statistic has improved slightly from past years, but it is far from the abundance they were found in on all the islands of Galápagos when they were discovered.

Due to human disturbance to their natural habitat, a dwindling food supply because of new predators introduced to the islands, and persecution by humans, they are now extinct on the islands of Baltra, Daphne Major, Floreana, San Cristóbal, and North Seymour.