April and October are the 2 months of the yr when chicken migration could be a spectacle for those who discover the actions of birds. Swainson’s Hawk is a kind of birds that may catch your consideration when a whole bunch fill the sky overhead, blended with migrating Redtail Hawks and an occasional Golden Eagle. My favourite locations to catch the migration of those hawks is within the agricultural areas west of Phoenix, and within the fall, the agriculture areas in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. Swainson’s Hawks can be standing on the bottom or following the tractors attempting to find grasshoppers and small rodents. The irrigation middle pivot booms are good perches for a looking vantage level. I’ve seen over a dozen birds perched on one growth because it slowly strikes in a circle across the discipline.
A smaller and slimmer hawk than the extra widespread Redtail Hawk, each of that are within the buteo group of hawks, the Swainson’s Hawk is a chicken of the American west. When hovering the wings are held above the horizontal and the wings look pointed. I discover the explanation for the look of a pointed wing to be a cool truth. Unlike different buteo hawks, the Swainson’s has an extended third main feather. I feel the lighter colour part is a most elegant chicken, with a darkish head and chest, whitish physique and a two-toned underwing with a hanging darkish trailing edge. The darkish part is trickier to establish and will be confused with a juvenile Redtail Hawk. The finest discipline marks for the darker birds is the pointed form and the dihedral set of the wings and an almost teetering flight like a Northern Harrier.
Buteos are specialists in looking small mammals, and the Swainson’s Hawk isn’t any exception. What does make them completely different is the quantity of bugs within the weight loss plan. Grasshoppers, dragonflies, and crickets are the first meals when not feeding chicks. They can catch bugs on the wing and even hover like a kite.
Swainson’s Hawks are primarily a chicken of the western grasslands, typically in affiliation with sagebrush and pinyon/juniper. The majority nest within the Central Great Plains and the Great Basin. Nests are in-built available timber typically in adjoining riparian areas or in junipers. A portion of the inhabitants finds breeding websites within the southwestern grasslands of Arizona, New Mexico, and west Texas. My finest remark of a breeding pair was final yr on my Breeding Bird Survey route close to Seligman, Arizona. I noticed a chicken in a juniper tree by the highway, When I finished I spotted it was two birds, and so they had been fairly occupied “doing it” (copulating). I used to be very secure in recording them as “breeding” birds on my survey!
The Swainson’s Hawk migration by means of Central America is a tremendous spectacle, a real “River of Raptors”. Tens of hundreds of birds funnel by means of Panama and southern Mexico heading north to their breeding grounds within the western United Stets and Canada and once more within the fall heading to the wintering grounds within the Pampas grasslands of Argentina. Audubon Migration Explorer exhibits this superb migration in time lapse.
An excellent variety of Swainson’s Hawks have been tagged with telemetry transmitters, giving avian scientists added insights to the migration journey. Audubon has featured the journey of Diego. He was captured and tagged in 2018 at Salt Lake City airport throughout his spring migration. He nested in Idaho after which headed south in August, becoming a member of different Swainson’s Hawks feeding on grasshoppers within the Texas grasslands and was a part of the Vera Cruz, Mexico River of Raptors spectacle in October. Columbia was an necessary cease over, the place Diego rested earlier than persevering with to Argentina, arriving in mid-November. He returned to Idaho the next spring, as a seasoned traveler!
I visited the Buckeye, Arizona space in early April and was handled to a half dozen Swainson’s Hawks hovering over a farm discipline. So, preserve your eyes open and look towards the sky for this very good-looking hawk!
