Swainson's Hawk
Buteo swainsoni
- KingdomAnimalia (Animals)
- PhylumChordata (Cordats)
- ClassAves (Aus)
- OrderAccipitriformes
- FamilyAccipitridae (Accipítrids)
- GenusButeo (Buteos)
- SpeciesButeo swainsoni (Swainson's Hawk)
Swainson's hawk (Buteo swainsoni) is a large bird species in the Accipitriformes order. This species was named after William Swainson, a British naturalist. It is colloquially known as the grasshopper hawk or locust hawk, as it is very fond of Acrididae (locusts and grasshoppers) and will voraciously eat these insects whenever they are available. Their breeding habitat is prairie and dry grasslands in western North America. They build a stick nest in a tree or shrub or on a cliff edge. This species is a long-distance migrant, wintering in Argentina; it has been recorded as a vagrant in neighboring Chile, in the island countries of the Dominican Republic, and Trinidad and Tobago, and in Norway. Wikipedia →
<5% of wildlife watchers report a Swainson's Hawk sighting in Sierra de la Macarena National Park, based on 5 days of visitor records from GBIF citizen-science data.
Closest Relatives at Sierra de la Macarena National Park
Gray-lined Hawk
Buteo nitidus
Broad-winged Hawk
Buteo platypterus
White-tailed Hawk
Buteo albicaudatus
Short-tailed Hawk
Buteo brachyurus
Zone-tailed Hawk
Buteo albonotatus
Roadside Hawk
Rupornis magnirostris
Harpy Eagle
Harpia harpyja
American Swallow-tailed Kite
Elanoides forficatus
Plumbeous Kite
Ictinia plumbea
Savanna Hawk
Buteogallus meridionalis
Crane Hawk
Geranospiza caerulescens
Double-toothed Kite
Harpagus bidentatus
📅 Monthly Probability
☀️ When They're Spotted
Most active during daytime hours (6am–6pm) · across all parks (global)
Global Distribution
Where this species is recorded worldwide. Restricted to human observations from 2019 onwards — the same kind of record and the same period the probabilities on this page are built from, so collar-tracking studies, camera-trap arrays and museum specimens are excluded. Around Santa Rosa that removes 5,924 GPS fixes from a handful of tagged jaguars.
where this species is recorded (GBIF density — it tracks where observers go, not how likely a sighting is) · parks where it occurs — tap a pin for the sighting probability there
Parks Where Found
Quick answers
What are the chances of seeing a Swainson's Hawk in Sierra de la Macarena National Park?
About 0% of wildlife watchers report a Swainson's Hawk sighting in Sierra de la Macarena National Park, based on 5 days of visitor records from GBIF citizen-science data.
When is the best time to see Swainson's Hawk in Sierra de la Macarena National Park?
March has the highest sighting rate for Swainson's Hawk in Sierra de la Macarena National Park in our monthly data.