Broad-winged Hawks and Swainson’s Hawks are leading the first raptor migration surges, from South America to California (immature Swainson’s Hawk and Turkey Vulture photos by Paul Konrad). Turkey Vultures are also migrating north by the thousands in some areas of Latin America.

While the migration of eagles, hawks, falcons, and kites remains a trickle of what will become a flood over time, thousands of raptors are beginning to migrate north from South America past monitoring locations in northern Colombia and Central America, Costa Rica specifically. The information provided at raptor count sites to the south provide some insightful looks at the species and numbers of birds of prey headed our way soon. The biggest numbers initially are being generated by Broad-winged Hawks and Swainson’s Hawks migrating north from wintering areas in South America.

The biggest numbers initially are being generated by Broad-winged Hawks that have spent most of our winter season in Latin America, from Brazil and Peru to southern Mexico, and the first migration thrusts of Swainson’s Hawks are showing up in Colombia from their wintering range in the grasslands of Argentina. Monday was the biggest early count of migrating raptors, generated at Tolima Raptor Count in west-central Colombia. A total of 3,436 Broad-winged Hawks and 348 Swainson’s Hawks were tallied, the most counted to date and more than all the other count dates combined this spring.

By the time migrating raptors enter Costa Rica, they are funneled into a smaller area, which ends to increase diurnal raptor counts at Ecovida HawkWatch, located north of the capitol of San Jose. Monday’s raptor total there was 571 Broad-winged Hawks and 49 Swainson’s Hawks; however, there was also a huge flight of Turkey Vultures, which numbered 12,091!

Actually, at this time raptors are being outnumbered in a big way by Turkey Vultures. That’s certainly the case at the most active American count site, Benson-Rio Grande near the south Texas border. Monday’s totals there numbered 1,460 Turkey Vultures. Farther west in the Borrego Valley of southern California, Tuesday’s counts included 159 Swainson’s Hawks and 169 Turkey Vultures – not bad for the first day of monitoring!

At this time, a minimum of raptor counting sites are active, but each week new count sites will activate, and it will be especially interesting to monitor migration numbers as they increase and move northward during spring migration. To check in for regular migration updates, refer to the Hawk Migration Association’s Raptor Migration Database at HawkCount