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Swainson's hawk migration Buteo swainsoni
▶ Follow the swainson's hawk across the big globe
Press ▶ to play the year. Line: a simplified typical route, joining the main cluster of GBIF records in each month (adjusted for observer effort).
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| Scientific name | Buteo swainsoni |
|---|---|
| Wingspan | 127 cm |
| Adult weight | 808 g (male), 1.109 kg (female) |
| IUCN status | Least concern |
| Records mapped | 810,065 (GBIF) |
| GPS / geolocator tracks | none with an open licence yet |
Facts from Wikidata Q833963 (CC0).
Migration in the data
810,065 GBIF records (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 licences only) are mapped here, in 1.41° grid cells, month by month.
In the Americas, the centre of the records (adjusted for observer effort) is furthest north in August (about 42°N) and furthest south in December (about 18°S).
More than half of the effort-adjusted signal there is south of the Equator in: January, February, December.
Month by month: centre of records in the Americas
| Month | Centre (latitude) | South of the Equator |
|---|---|---|
| January | 16°S | 65% |
| February | 16°S | 66% |
| March | 20°N | 11% |
| April | 38°N | 0% |
| May | 41°N | 0% |
| June | 41°N | 0% |
| July | 41°N | 0% |
| August | 42°N | 0% |
| September | 42°N | 0% |
| October | 31°N | 1% |
| November | 4°S | 43% |
| December | 18°S | 70% |
Tracked birds
No openly licensed (CC0 / CC BY) tracking data package for this species was found in the Movebank Data Repository yet, so only records are shown.
About the swainson's hawk
Swainson's hawk 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 and will voraciously eat these insects whenever they are available.
From the Wikipedia article “Swainson's hawk” (revision 1380707091), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Sources
GBIF occurrence records, licence CC0 1.0 or CC BY 4.0 only, observations only (no specimens), filtered with: taxonKey=2480562&license=CC0_1_0&license=CC_BY_4_0&occurrenceStatus=PRESENT&hasGeospatialIssue=false&basisOfRecord=HUMAN_OBSERVATION&basisOfRecord=MACHINE_OBSERVATION&basisOfRecord=OBSERVATION. Monthly queries: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec. GBIF.org (23 October 2026) occurrence data accessed via the GBIF API; a GBIF download DOI is still to be added. Contributing datasets.