- Buteo swainsoni
Identification
48–56 cm (19-22 in)
- Dark brown upperparts
- Brown chest with dark "bib"
- White throat patch
- Pale belly.
A rufous morph is discussed in this thread.
Distribution
Western North America, wintering in Argentina, southern Brazil and Paraguay.
Taxonomy
This is a monotypic species[1].
Habitat
A wide variety of habitats including prairie and dry grasslands.
Behaviour
Breeding
They build a stick nest in a tree, shrub or on a cliff edge. The 1-4 white eggs are incubated by the female for 34-35 days.
Diet
They have a very varied diet, which mostly consists of small mammals; rabbits, voles, bats etc in the breeding season, as well as some birds.
References
- Clements, J. F., P. C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2023. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2023. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Bechard, M. J., C. S. Houston, J. H. Saransola, and A. S. England (2020). Swainson's Hawk (Buteo swainsoni), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (A. F. Poole, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.swahaw.01
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Swainson's Hawk. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 8 February 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Swainson%27s_Hawk
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1