The Broad-winged Hawk is a small, chunky woodland buteo, brown above and barred below, best identified by a bold black-and-white banded tail. Secretive and easily overlooked during the nesting season, it hunts quietly from perches inside large tracts of forest, taking frogs, snakes, small mammals, and insects. Its call is a thin, high, plaintive whistle — "pee-teeee" — that seems almost too delicate for a bird of prey.
What makes the Broad-winged Hawk famous is its migration. Each September the entire eastern population funnels south toward Central and South America, and the birds gather into enormous swirling flocks called "kettles," sometimes numbering in the thousands, that spiral upward on rising warm air and then stream onward. Hawk-watch sites in Michigan and around the Great Lakes tally huge Broad-winged flights on the right autumn days, one of the continent's great raptor spectacles. In summer they breed in Michigan's larger forests before vanishing south again.
Hunts from forest perches for small mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and large insects, dropping onto prey on the ground. It takes frogs, snakes, chipmunks, mice, and nestling birds, adjusting to locally abundant prey through the breeding season before its long migration.
A kettle is a swirling flock of migrating hawks spiraling upward together on rising warm air (a thermal). Broad-winged Hawks form especially large kettles in fall, sometimes with thousands of birds, before gliding onward toward the tropics.
Mainly in September, when Broad-winged Hawks stream south in large numbers. Hawk-watch sites around the Great Lakes can record big flights on days with favorable winds and rising thermals.
Look for a small, compact buteo with a short, boldly black-and-white banded tail and, from below, pale wings with dark edges. Its thin, whistled "pee-teeee" call is also distinctive in the summer woods.
Juveniles show blurry vertical streaking below and a tail with several narrow, even bands instead of the adult's single bold white band. That tail pattern is the quickest way to age migrating birds.
A kettle — hawks spiraling upward together on a rising thermal, so named because they look like something boiling in a pot. Broad-winged Hawks form the biggest kettles of any Michigan raptor, sometimes hundreds of birds at once.
Other birds you might be looking at instead.
Pick the park — it takes less than ten seconds.
Start typing the bird's name, then pick it from the list.
Suggest a birding spot to add to the map. I'll review it before it appears.
Thanks! Your suggestion has been sent for review.
Found something wrong or out of date? Tell me what to fix — it goes straight to my inbox. (No email needed.)
Thank you — your note is on its way. I appreciate the help keeping this accurate.