The Broad-winged Hawk is primarily a summer visitant, and breeder, in North America. It breeds in a narrow band from northeastern British Columbia, east through west-central Alberta, central Saskatchewan, southern Manitoba, southern Ontario, southern Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia south through eastern Minnesota, central Iowa, eastern Kansas, eastern Oklahoma, and eastern Texas, east to northern Florida and the Atlantic coast. Some immatures winter irregularly and in small numbers along coastal Texas and the Gulf Coast to southern Florida.
The Broad-winged Hawk is highly migratory, wintering from Guatemala south through Central America to Peru and Brazil.
There are six recognized subspecies of this hawk, only one of which is found in North America, namely Buteo platypterus platypterus. The remaining five races occur in the Caribbean.
The Broad-winged Hawk is also resident on the Greater and Lesser Antilles, including Cuba, Puerto Rico, Antigua, Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, Barbados, St. Vincent, the Grenadines, Grenada, Tobago, and occasionally Trinidad.
MIGRATION
The Broad-winged Hawk is highly migratory. It winters in extreme southern Central America to southern Brazil. In eastern and central Canada, the Broad-winged Hawk arrives in April to May. The return flights take place in September and October, funneling through the Isthmus of Panama. Certain ridges, narrow water crossings, and other geographical features concentrate spectacular waves of migrants at points along their spring or fall routes, like Hawk Mountain in Pennsylvania, Hawk Ridge, Duluth in Minnesota, Whitefish Point in Michigan, Hawk Cliff in Ontario, Corpus Christi in Texas, Cape May Point in New Jersey, and Veracruz in Mexico.
The Broad-winged Hawk uses a specific migration "strategy". With widespread wings and tail it rides thermals to get aloft. Then with set wings and folded tail it glides in its direction of migration, pushed by the wind. Updrafts and favorable winds are associated with weather patterns that reoccur every few days. Weather typically occurs over a broad front, sending waves of migrating Broad-winged Hawks simultaneously over large areas. This type of soar-then-glide flight enables the hawks to make major sections of their journey with very little flapping, and thus little energy expenditure.
The surface of a large water body absorbs heat and does not create thermals; thus Broad-winged hawks are unable to soar across large lakes or wide ocean crossings. The Great Lakes pose a formidable barrier, congregating Broad-winged Hawks at four narrow crossings. The general pattern of migration in eastern North America involves these four "lanes" of hawks diverging from the Great Lakes' crossings, plus a wide lane travelling the updrafts of the Appalachian ridges, and another between the Mississippi River and the eastern edge of the Great Plains. The inability to cross wide water also explains why Broad-winged Hawks fly down Central America and do not cross the Gulf of Mexico.
Broad-winged Hawks do not act as true flock members. Favorable air and weather conditions happen to concentrate birds in certain areas. Birds typically migrate at a maximum height of 1300 to 2000 yards (1209 to 1860 meters) elevation. Because they depend upon weather, flights do not occur every day. On a flight day the air warms and thermals become strong. However when conditions are unfavorable, birds will stay in the woods, sometimes hunting and occasionally continuing in low flight short distances in the general direction of migration .
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