If you have felt a recent change in the air and are starting to get excited for fall, you may just be a Broad-winged Hawk. Okay, maybe broad-wings don’t get excited about fall, but they do experience Zugunruhe, which is German for migratory restless period.
September is not just the start of pumpkin spice everything or the month to get decorating for spooky season. It’s the time for migration and birds are already on the move. The best time to observe migrating birds is after a cold front has passed through the area and winds shift to blow out of the northwest. On ideal days at hawk watch sites throughout the area, you may be lucky enough to see thousands of broad-wings flying south.
The Broad-winged Hawk is a special species for VINS. Our current logo even features a broad-wing silhouette in flight. These amazing migrants are one of the most numerous species in our area during the spring and summer. Unfortunately, like many species, they are not immune from troubling declines. Broad-wings face pressures on their breeding grounds and their wintering grounds. In some South American countries, they are still hunted in large numbers. A multi-state study led by researchers at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania (a mountain that began as a hawk hunting location and is now a hawk watch site) looks to discern if certain populations are being affected more by nesting, wintering, or migration season pressures and what those threats might be.
For the last two seasons, VINS staff has helped contribute to this important project. In 2023, we assisted in the capture and banding of Ottauquechee, a female that nested in Woodstock, Vermont. She was outfitted with a transmitter and has been providing movement data for the past two years. She is currently on her second tracked migration south. In 2024, we located and monitored eight nests throughout the area. We trapped and deployed a transmitter on another bird, Billings, a male nesting in the woods of Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park. Billings and Ottauquechee can be tracked on the Broad-winged Hawk Project website.
Unfortunately, Broad-winged Hawks are common patients in our Center for Wild Bird Rehabilitation and Ambassador Care (CWBRAC). A 2020 survey of blood parasites in rehabilitation patients found Broad-winged Hawks were infected at higher rates than other species. To further explore this finding, CWBRAC and the Center for Field Research created a monitoring project. Our Field Biologists have spent the last two seasons trapping free-range birds to conduct blood draws. These samples from healthy non-rehab birds are compared with samples from birds in our care. Our findings may have important implications for conservation and can aid in the care decisions for birds in rehab.
There are several steps we can all take to help protect Broad-winged Hawks. Conserving forests provides breeding habitat, and stopover areas throughout their migration. Reducing the use of chemicals, like rodenticides and pesticides, benefits all raptor species. Discussing the issues facing this species can increase awareness. And the next time you hear that distinct high pitched whistle of a Broad-winged Hawk, check to make sure it’s not a Blue Jay mimicking a broad-wing, then take a moment to appreciate this incredible species!