The Swainson's Hawk is a long-distance migrant, sometimes travelling more than 14,000 miles each way. It is found in North America only during the Spring and Summer, and spends its winters in Argentina. During their marathon migrations which can last up to two-months each, they travel every clear day that has a wind blowing in the direction they are headed. They circle on rising thermals to gain altitude, then set their wings and close their tails and start a slow, gradual descent until they find another rising thermal and then repeat the process.
There are two color morphs, light and dark. The vast majority of them are of the light color morph, except in the extreme Western edge of their range. They hunt small mammals primarily during the breeding and nesting period to feed their young. The rest of the year, they subsist primarily on insects - grasshoppers and locusts being their favorites. However, they also relish dragonflies and dobsonflies and pretty much any large insect.
We spotted this dark morph circling and stopped to snap a few images. Right after I got this image, it did a vertical dive down to the ground in a field just off the road from where I was standing. It was so quick, that I could not follow it with the camera. It landed on the ground with its mate that had already managed to capture dinner for the kids.
There are two color morphs, light and dark. The vast majority of them are of the light color morph, except in the extreme Western edge of their range. They hunt small mammals primarily during the breeding and nesting period to feed their young. The rest of the year, they subsist primarily on insects - grasshoppers and locusts being their favorites. However, they also relish dragonflies and dobsonflies and pretty much any large insect.
We spotted this dark morph circling and stopped to snap a few images. Right after I got this image, it did a vertical dive down to the ground in a field just off the road from where I was standing. It was so quick, that I could not follow it with the camera. It landed on the ground with its mate that had already managed to capture dinner for the kids.
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| Swainson's Hawk - Dark Morph |
I took this while they were loafing around in the weeds, the male on the left and the female on the right. More than other raptors, they are comfortable on the ground and do much of their hunting and foraging by hopping around catching their prey. They hung out for a few minutes on the ground letting me get a few images of them together in the weeds before flying off one at a time to their nest.
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| Matched Pair |
The female left for the nest first, followed about a minute later by the male carrying dinner in its beak.
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| Dad Taking Home Dinner |
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