Birdland
The Elegant Swainson’s Hawk
Sometimes called the grasshopper hawk or the locust hawk, this species was named after the British naturalist William Swainson. As the Cornell Lab of Ornithology notes, Swainson’s Hawks are buteos, meaning they are large hawks with fairly broad wings and short tails. They are light-bellied birds with a dark or reddish-brown chest and brown or gray upperparts. Most males have gray heads; females tend to have brown heads. The Swainson’s is a long-distance migrant, wintering in Argentina, and returning to North America in the spring. This hawk was photographed at Bluff Lake Wildlife Refuge east of Park Hill by Mark Silverstein.