Pele eNO ea OUN PPB ils Te TY TN 21 
Wintering Swainson’s and Broad-winged Hawks 
By JIM COMFORT 
(The following treatise first appeared in The Bluebird, but is quite apropos 
for Illinois.—Editor) 
The inclusion of the Swainson’s and Broad-winged hawks on the 
Missouri Christmas Bird Counts has resulted in considerable consternation 
at both the state and national levels. Since other birders may be influenced 
by these listings and conclude that the sighting of a Swainson’s or Broad- 
winged in the winter is not too unusual, the accepted winter status of these 
birds warrants review. 
The Swainson’s Hawk is a bird of the prairie and desert. It is a com- 
mon, sometimes abundant, hawk over a vast area. The nesting range is 
west of Missouri, with the excepition of localized populations along the 
western edge of the state. The first Missouri nesting record is recorded by 
Widmann in A PRELIMINARY CATALOGUE OF BIRDS IN MISSOURI. 
Here a nest near Pierce City in the “late eighties” is reported. The first 
modern record is a nesting pair near Kansas City in 1955, and I have a 
note that states that they nested in the same area for at least four more 
years. 
The Swainson’s generally migrates in huge flocks, but this is not the 
case in Missouri. Singles and scattered individuals have been seen in spring 
and fall. In 1961, David Easterla reported in The Bluebird that ‘In Missouri 
the Swainson’s has been our most abundant hawk this spring. On May 3, 
Mike Flieg observed four at one time. These hawks were also observed on 
March 29, May 10 and May 14.” 
A cursory review of the 1973-74 Christmas Census published in Ameri- 
can Birds finds only five stations, all in Texas, listed the Swainson’s. The 
bird reported from Missouri had been deleted by the C.B.C. editor. A review 
of literature disclosed that the Swainson’s is indeed an extremely rare 
Winter resident within the United States. When Bent’s BIRDS OF PREY, 
part I, was published in 1922, only two records of wintering Swainson’s 
were included. Both were from southern Florida, one on November 28, 1895, 
at Key West, and the second on December 7, 1922 at Miami. Bent further 
Stated “ ... the winter range of the Swainson’s hawk is entirely in the 
Republic of Argentina. Visual winter records for this species are almost 
