Belize Biodiversity Information System NAME - Swainson's Hawk FAMILY - Accipitridae SCIENTIFIC NAME - Buteo swainsoni SYNONYMS - Buteo vulgaris - Audubon, 1837 REFERENCES - 1 National abundance, Conservation or Economic Status Reference Transient, present briefly as migrant. 14 Apparently secure in Belize 13 Rare: low density, unlikely to be seen, few localities 13 PIF-1 Pri. 7, winters s. Mexican border 12 PIF Trend: Possible Increase 12 Transient, present briefly as migrant. 3 U.S. Migratory Bird Treaty 10 District Reference Belize 4 Cayo 4 Toledo 7 Administrative Unit Occurrence Temporal Reference Chiquibul Forest Reserve Sighting Dry season 8 Columbia River Forest Reserve 7 Chiquibul National Park Sighting Dry season 8 Caracol Archaeological Reserve Sighting Dry season 5 Hydrologic Association Reference Macal River 8 Elevation Reference 1-200 m 11 1:50,000 Quadrangle Reference 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 10' to 88 30' 11 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 10' to 88 30' 4 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 30' to 88 45' 11 17 00' to 17 15'; 88 45' to 89 00' 11 17 00' to 17 15'; 88 45' to 89 00' 4 17 00' to 17 15'; 88 30' to 88 45' 11 17 00' to 17 15'; 88 30' to 88 45' 4 16 45' to 17 00'; 89 00' to 89 15' 5 16 45' to 17 00'; 89 00' to 89 15' 8 16 15' to 16 30'; 88 45' to 89 00' 7 Holdridge Life Zone Reference Tropical moist-transition to Subtropical 11 General Distribution Comments 14* Occasional northern semideciduous moist forest. Occasional coastal/low-lands savannas, inc. marshy areas. 8* Guacamallo 9* Howell & Webb state "reports from Belize (Wood and Leberman 1987) require verification;" otherwise show no records for BZ 3* Transient-winter resident, uncommon northern and southern hardwood forests, Mountain Pine ridge and coastal savannas. References 1 A.O.U. 1983. Checklist of North American Birds. 6th Ed. 2 A.O.U. 1985, 1987, 1989. 35th-37th Supplements. 3 Wood, D.S.,R. C. Leberman, and D. Weyer. 1986. Checklist of Birds of Belize. Carnegie Museum of Natural History Special Publication 12. 4 Miller, B. W., 1994. Belize Christmas Bird Counts, Twenty Year Summary. in prep. 5 Miller, B. W., C. M. Miller. 1994, Birds of Caracol, 1988 - 1993. in prep. 6 Weyer, D. 1984. Diurnal Birds of Prey of Belize. The Hawk Trust. Vol. 14 pp.23 - 39. 7 Wood, D. S., R. C. Leberman. 1987. Results of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History Expeditions to Belize. III. Distributional Notes on the Birds of Belize. Annals Carnegie Museum. 56(6):137-160. 8 Counsell, D.J.R., B. Etheridge. 1986. RAFOS Expedition to Belize. Unpublished report. 9 Howell, S. N. G., S. Webb. 1995. A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America. New York. Oxford University Press. 10 Title 50 Code of Federal Regulations, Subchapter B., Part 10.13: List of Migratory Birds. U.S. Government Printing Office: 1985 0-488-794. (Lists all species of migratory birds protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (16 U.S.C. 703-711). 11 Miller, B. W. 1997. Belize Christmas Bird Count Summary 1970-1995. Data from American Birds Vol. 28-50 including 1973-1996. 12 Working Group, Partners in Flight. 1992. Needs Assessment: Monitoring Migratory Birds. Report for Neotropical Migratory Bird Program 13 Miller, B.W., C.M. Miller. 1997. Avian Risk Assessment for Belize, Species at Risk and of Conservation Concern. Report to Programme for Belize/TNC Wings of America Program. 14 Garcia, J., S. Matola, M. Meadows, and C. Wright. 1994. A Checklist of the Birds of Belize. WWF-US. 35p.
Wildlife Conservation Society
Ministry of Natural Resources' Land Information Centre
01/19/98