Swainson’s Hawks are migrating through northern South America in huge numbers along with Broad-winged Hawks and other raptors (photo by Paul Konrad).

Friday, the Tolima Raptor Count site recorded 216,857 that included at least 156,433 Broad-winged Hawks, 59,721 Swainson’s Hawks, 700 Buteo hawks that could not be identified by species, and 3 Ospreys! Located west of Bogota, Colombia, the Tolima news is an indicator of birds to come as they funnel through Panama and ultimately migrate across the United States and Canada. Even now, American count sites are already reporting exciting raptor numbers, such as the 553 Bald Eagles counted at Duluth, Minnesota on Monday and 2,731 Swainson’s Hawks at Borrego Springs, California on March 13th.

In addition to raptors being counted, high numbers of migrating Turkey Vultures are being reported at several spring count locations, including 9,045 Turkey Vultures at Mission, Texas last Saturday and 1,334 Turkey Vultures at the Erie, Pennsylvania count site on Monday.

To check in on the raptor and vulture migration totals throughout the spring season, refer to http://www.hawkcount.org/

To review the information about the remarkable count of 216,857 raptors last Friday, March 19th, see http://www.hawkcount.org/day_summary.php?rsite=813&ryear=2021&rmonth=03&rday=19