SWAINSON'S HAWK

DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE Swainson’s hawk breeds in portions of Alaska and western Canada, east to Minnesota and Illinois, and south to southern California, parts of Mexico, Texas, and Missouri; eastern breeding limits are unstable (England et al. 1997, Groves et al. 1997a). This species winters from the southwestern U.S. and southeastern Florida (irregularly) south to South America; the primary winter range for the Swainson’s hawk is located on the pampas of Argentina (England et al. 1997). From prairie Canada, the migration from breeding to wintering grounds is >10,000 km each way – a distance second among raptors only to that of the Arctic peregrine falcon. Nearly 350,000 Swainson’s hawks have been counted flying over a single point in Panama City in October and November, and up to 845,000 have been counted in a single autumn in Veracruz, Mexico (England et al. 1997). In Idaho, this species breeds throughout the southern half of the state, as well in the Palouse region of the northwest (Burleigh 1972, Bechard et al. 1986, Groves et al. 1997a). Is generally absent from the Idaho panhandle except as an uncommon fall transient (Burleigh 1972). The are an estimated 16,800 breeding individuals in Idaho (Rosenberg 2004).