Swainson's hawk (Buteo swainsoni) Adult Swainson's Hawk in flight. BLM file photo taken from BLM webpage.
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adult_S.Hawk_in_flight.jpg
Swainson's hawk (Buteo swainsoni), is a large Buteo hawk of the Falconiformes, sometimes separated in the Accipitriformes like its relatives. This species was named after William Swainson, a British naturalist. It is colloquially known as the grasshopper hawk or locust hawk, as it is very fond of Acrididae (locusts and grasshoppers) and will voraciously eat these insects whenever they are available. Their breeding habitat is prairie and dry grasslands in western North America. This species or its immediate predecessor is the ancestor of the Galápagos hawk (Buteo galapagoensis), as demonstrated by recent research. The latter diverged from the mainland birds perhaps 300,000 years ago, a very short time in evolution. Order: Falconiformes, Family: Accipitridae, Species: Buteo swainsoni Bonaparte, 1838
Synonyms: Buteo swainsonii (lapsus)