Species-Specific Management (SSM)

The Buteos : Broad-Winged Hawks

The term buteo refers to any hawk in the genus Buteo and they are raptors, or predaceous birds. Buteos share several characteristics, the most prominent ones being short, rounded tails, broad wings, and large, chunky bodies. The genus includes red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis), broad-winged hawks (Buteos platypterus), and red-shouldered hawks (Buteo lineatus), all of which occur in and around the southern Appalachian forest.

The buteos occupy top positions in the natural food chain. The following list of management suggestions will help make your land a more suitable home for buteos.

1. Mated buteo pairs require large home ranges, often in excess of 125 acres. A good rule of thumb: you need a minimum of 60 acres before embarking upon a sound buteo management plan.
2. If you are fortunate enough to have streams and/or marshy areas on your property, protect them. Buteos use them for food and water and often prefer nesting sites close to water bodies. Few events will chase off buteos faster than a wetland being drained.
3. Leave tall deciduous trees like maple, oak, and beech standing along streams and wet areas. Buteos like to perch and nest in trees that grow at least 30 feet high, especially if these trees are located near water. Bigger trees also provide strong, spreading branches that support buteos' nests.
4. Trying to manage buteos and large timber harvests simultaneously will not work! Buteos will leave their home ranges if you cut many trees. They are sensitive to major habitat alterations, especially when prime nesting and perching trees are removed.
5. Small group-selection harvest, however, will improve buteo foraging if tall trees are left standing around the resulting "meadows." or early-succession areas. The grasses that grow on freshly-cleared plots support a rich food base of mice, moles, and voles. Buteos prefer these small mammals above all other meals. The contrasting edge formed by the grasses and trees will also attract songbirds, another buteo food.
6. Do not ignore small fruiting shrubs or other sources of mast just because buteos choose large trees. Small release cuttings will encourage these species to grow, and these species will in turn draw small birds and mammals (buteo food) to the scene.
7. Leave all existing snags standing. At least one good snag per acre is best. Massive dead trees offer excellent viewing perches for raptors of all kinds.
8. Remember that the best way to manage for buteos is to manage their prey first. If you think your land could support more small birds and mammals, invest in wildlife food patches. A half-acre strip of millet will bring a myriad of little species. The buteos will follow!
9. Prevent or minimize pesticide/insecticide use as much as possible. Raptors, including buteos, are famous for eggshell thinning due to pesticides. Do not forget that buteos eat rodents and insects. Buteos prefer wild prey and only resort to "chicken-hawking" when food is dangerously scarce.
10. Talk to farmers and land owners in your area about the benefits of buteo management. Strongly remind neighbors that killing raptors violates federal law.
11. Prevent wandering cats.
12. Four-wheeling and all-terrain vehicles probably cannot coexist with buteos on your land. Again, buteos are usually sensitive to disturbance and probably will not tolerate the noise and destruction associated with these forms of recreation.
13. Guard your land from fire. Fire will temporarily disrupt the buteo prey base and the birds may go elsewhere in search of food.
14. Fence in your cattle. Like fire, over-grazing will damage meadows and forest floors, or at least make them unsuitable for small prey mammals.
15. If you have power lines on your land, and you notice buteos perching and/or trying to nest on them, consider specialized nesting platforms built above their chosen poles. You will offer the buteos safe nesting sites and also prevent power line damage at the same time.
16. Buy a pair of binoculars. Once buteos settle on your property, you will never tire of watching them. Their high, circling, soaring flight will please the eyes of anyone. Think about group bird watching walks so that other people may enjoy them, too.
17. Although some species stay year round in favorable environments, many will migrate no matter how nicely you manage your land for them. Often buteos will fly as far south as Mexico, Brazil, and other parts of Central and South America. Remember that managing and preserving buteo wintering grounds is as important for the hawks as the management plans implemented within the southern Appalachian forest.

The broad-winged hawk (Buteo platypterus), may be treated separately. It is viewed as beneficial because it helps reduce damaging rodent, insect, and reptile populations. It is also an aesthetically pleasing species since it is one of the most approachable birds, due to is unsuspicious nature. The bird breeds in this region and winters in Florida and Mexico to as far south as Peru.

The broad-winged hawk mainly nests in trees that are between 9 and 18 inches diameter at breast height. The bird will build its nest in the crotch of the tree. Tree species that are preferred are white oak (Quercus alba), red oak (Quercus rubra), chestnut oak (Quercus pumila), scarlet oak (Quercus coccinea), and black cherry (Prunus serotina). The hawk resides in streamside zones and will avoid open areas.

They will eat earthworms (Lumbricidae), ants (Formicidae), spiders (Arachnida), grasshoppers (Orthoptera), locusts (Orthoptera), beetles (Coleoptera), moth larvae (Lepidoptera), crawfish (Astaicidae), crabs (Brachyura), toads (Bufo spp), wood frogs (Rana sylvatica), lizards (Lacertilia), snakes (Serpentes), mice (Peromyscus), shrews (Blarina), rabbits (Sylvilagus), hares (Lepus), chipmunks (Tamias), red squirrels (Tamiascurius), weasels (Mustela), and birds up to the size of a flicker.

Management suggestions for increasing the bird and benefits from it are:

1. Hawks, owls, and eagles are protected by federal law. However, permits can be issued for control if predation becomes too damaging. Control techniques may include pole trapping, frightening, screening access, proofing, and modifying its habitat.
2. Wooded strips 100 feet wide should be maintained along both sides of streams and wet areas in order to provide preferred habitat and limit degradation of the site.
3. Periodic thinning of wooded habitats can increase growth of preferred nesting tree species.
4. Avoid soil compaction of streamside areas to maintain earthworm, beetle, and rodent populations.
5. Maintain duff layer, for example by excluding or limiting grazing, to provide cover for small rodent populations.
6. Leave fallen logs to provide runways for small rodents, food for beetles, and cover for lizards and snakes.
7. Maintain shrubs and brush along riparian edges to provide cover to attract rabbits and hares. Adjacent grassy strips should be mowed to encourage succulent growth.
8. Maintain health of acorn and other mast-producing trees to provide food for squirrels and chipmunks.
9. Provide snags in riparian zone for cavity nesting squirrels.
10. Plant or maintain a few pine trees (Pinus) to provide additional food for squirrels.
11. Protect streams and create special stream habitats to maintain crawfish.
12. Put logs and branches in stream to provide habitats for crawfish, salamanders, and insects.
13. Build shelters or blinds for bird watchers.
14. Keep a record of sightings and compare it with those of neighbors. Sometimes a regional approach is needed for a bird that occupies a large area.
15. Attempt to predict future land use patterns, then estimate the status of the buteos within that pattern. Is there anything that can be done now to improve the future condition?

The Hawk Migration Association Of North America provides guidance and keeps track of the work of migration counting of North American raptors by a number of disparate individuals and groups. Importantly, HMANA attempts to standardize protocols so that these counts have maximum scientific relevance.

A contribution of Gabrielle Keefer (1992), Shelly L. Aber (1993), and Denise R. Dodd (1993), Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0321

See Raptors of Western North America: The Wheeler Guides. By Brian K. Wheeler. 2003. Princeton University Press. 560 pp. 622 color illus. 56 maps. ISBN 0-691-11599-0. Hardcover, $49.50.

Raptors of Eastern North America: The Wheeler Guides. By Brian K. Wheeler. 2003. Princeton University Press. 456 pp. 559 color illus. 37 maps. ISBN 0-691-11598-2. Hardcover, $45.00.

This Web site is maintained by R. H. Giles, Jr.
Last revision January 17, 2000.