Broad-Winged Hawk

COMMON NAME: Broad-winged Hawk

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Buteo platypterus

IDENTIFYING CHARACTERISTICS:
A very small buteo (the smallest in the Midwest), the broad-winged hawk has a dark brown back and a light breast and belly. The adult has reddish horizontal barring underneath while the immature bird's barring runs vertically and is browner. The tail of the adult is brown to gray with broad white stripes, and the immature bird's tail is brown with a light-black terminal band. In all ages the sexes look alike.

RANGE:
The broad-winged is a hawk of eastern deciduous woodlands and is not found west of the Rocky Mountains. Its range extends in the north from Alberta east to Nova Scotia, south through North Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa to eastern Texas, through the Gulf coast to northern Florida. Populations also exist on some of the islands of the Caribbean.

HABITAT:
Found in dense, unbroken deciduous or mixed deciduous/coniferous woodlands, the broad-winged hawk utilizes parts of woodlands for nesting that the red-tailed hawk and red-shouldered hawk do not. They are often found feeding near openings created by roads, trails, or wetlands. This is a very migratory hawk moving south to winter in Central and South America. During migration they can be seen in large "kettles" over places like Hawk Ridge in Duluth in numbers up to 8,000 to 10,000 per day.

NESTING:
Courtship displays include whistling calls and territorial advertisements involving soaring and swooping flights by both members of the pair. Broad-winged hawks make a small stick nest in the crotch of a deciduous, or on occasion, a coniferous tree. Nests are rarely used for two consecutive years. Two to four eggs are laid and incubated by the female for 31 days.

FEEDING HABITS:
Like the other buteos, the broad-winged hawk eats a wide variety of prey. During the nesting season, mammals -- primarily chipmunks, shrews, and voles -- are common in their diets, along with frogs, lizards, and nestling birds. On the wintering grounds of South America, insects, lizards, and frogs seem to make up the majority of their diet. They hunt directly from perches or by searching during flight.

RAPTOR CENTER DATA:
Broad-winged hawks are most commonly seen in the rehabilitation clinic during the fall and spring migrations, usually with traumatic injuries. They are one of the most excitable and stressed of the buteos in captivity. Immature birds, however, can become quite tame.

CONSERVATION STATUS:
Considered to be one of the most common hawks in North America, with approximately one million birds making up the North American population. They are very common in the Midwest, and up to 62,000 have been recorded in one year flying over Hawk Ridge in Duluth. The broad-winged hawk has no special conservation status in Minnesota, but like all hawks and owls, is protected by state and federal law.

Other Web Resources:

Images

• See a broadwinged hawk

Sounds

• Hear a broadwinged hawk

Broad-Winged Hawk Range
Minnesota Ornithologists' Union bird range map

Additional Information (not specifically about hawks):
Publications