Relatively smaller than other sea turtles with an elongated oval shaped shell, and a small head with a hawk-like beak.
Their coloration is mainly brown with splotches of yellow, orange, or reddish brown.
As they grow older, an adult hawksbill turtle will reach sizes up to 3 feet in length and weigh up to 300 pounds.
Diet
Hawksbill turtles rely on coral reefs for food resources and habitat.
An adult hawksbill can eat an average of 1200 lbs. (544 kg) of sponges a year!
Where
Hawksbills migrate long distances at each of stage of life.
They are often found in waters deeper than 65 feet.
They are native to the coast of Florida.
Its normal habitat are rocky areas, coral reefs, lagoons or oceanic island.
Nesting
The Hawksbill nest at night about 4.5 times per season at intervals of 14 days.
They lay about 160 eggs in each nest and the eggs incubate for about 60 days.
The choice of the nesting site is important because of the lack of parental care, if the nesting site is chosen poorly it can affect the offspring.
Hawksbills show relatively strong beach fidelity, often returning to the same areas within and among breeding seasons (Hoyle and Richardson, 1993 and Bass et al., 1996). They show high within-individual consistency of nest site choice.
Endangered
Hawksbills are an endangered species. In particular, increased recreational and commercial use of nesting beaches, beach camping and fires, litter and other refuse, general harassment of turtles, and loss of nesting habitat from human activities negatively impact hawksbills.
But the primary global threat to hawksbills is habitat loss of coral reef communities. Coral reefs are vulnerable to destruction and degradation caused by human activities.
Younger Hawksbill turtles are black or very dark brown with light brown coloration on the edge of the shell.
This Hawksbill sea turtle is snacking on algea and coralomorphs.
Hawksbill sea turtles are predominantly in tropical reefs of the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans.
Discarded fishing nets can entangle and drown sea turtles.