Swainson's Hawk in north Florida

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Noah M
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Swainson's Hawk in north Florida

Post by Noah M »

On December 8th my friend J. Schmitt and I were heading out herping, but he saw this hawk sitting on a hay bale near the road and decided to stop for a few pictures. Little did we know what we had just seen. Time passes and he shares a few of his pictures with some folks that he knows, and I think the people over at ebird.org and they tell him it is a Swainson's Hawk. I disagreed. It looked like an immature Red-tailed Hawk. Red-tails are much more common in the area, and Swainson's are extremely rare for Florida. But I said I would send a few pictures off to my friend who is a professor of ornithology at Purdue University. He could settle this debate.

Here is what Dr. Dunning said (I've edited out a few unrelated items):
I am afraid that I am going to have to take sides with your friend. You are right that Swainson’s Hawk is extremely rare in Florida and the usual rule is “when you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras” (e.g., more common is more likely). But Red-tailed Hawks tend to have a strongly marked belly band but not the level of dark marking around the breast area that is seen on this bird. Adult Swainson’s on the other hand have a very prominent dark breast in just the area marked on this bird. In addition, my impression from the photos is that this is a slim bird, which one would not expect for a Red-tail and is more consistent with a Swainson’s. They are a long distance migrant (going all the way to Argentina in the winter) and have a slimmer build with “less shoulders” than one would expect in a Red-tail. So I think the rarer bird is more likely here, that it is a Swainson’s in sub-adult plumage.

Dr. Dunning
So without further ado, I present a series of photos of a rare bird in Florida. My "Florida's Birds" field guide refers to this bird as "accidental".

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chrish
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Re: Swainson's Hawk in north Florida

Post by chrish »

Interesting on two counts. First it is a Swainson's Hawk in Florida, but also it is a Swainson's Hawk in North America in December when they should all be gone.

Interesting that there have only been 5 Swainson's reported (on ebird) in the US this month - 1 in Louisiana and 4 in Florida.
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Noah M
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Re: Swainson's Hawk in north Florida

Post by Noah M »

I signed up and submitted it to ebird, but because it was flagged as rare, it is under review.
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monklet
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Re: Swainson's Hawk in north Florida

Post by monklet »

Congrats on a great find and finding it like that makes it fun!

The fact that the wing tips extend all the way to the end of the tail as seen in the last pic is locker. Swainson's are much longer winged than Red-tailed.

Chris, not sure about this year but I believe we've had a wintering Swainson's annually at the Pt. Mugu Naval Air Station here in Ventura County, CA.
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