 Breeding evidence |
 Relative abundance |
 Probability of observation |
Click for a larger version or to add map overlays |
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Click on plot to view table of mean abundance
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Number of squares
Long-term BBS trends
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1.72 (0.548 - 2.98)|
Mean abundance (number of birds detected per 5 min. point count) and percentage of squares occupied by region Bird Conservation Regions [abund. plot]
[%squares plot]
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Atlas Results
Ferruginous Hawks were found in 402 atlas squares in southern Saskatchewan. They were primarily found in the Cypress Upland and Mixed Grassland ecoregions, as well as the southern portion of the Moist Mixed Grassland. Results of the mapping analysis highlight the extreme southwest as the core of their distribution in the province. Their large nests are often easy to spot from the road in the sparsely treed landscapes they inhabit, resulting in breeding confirmations in 196 squares, nearly half of all squares with Ferruginous Hawk detections. An early migrant, adults were seen occupying nests as early as the second week in April.
Excerpts Adapted from the Birds of Saskatchewan:
The Ferruginous Hawk is the largest, most powerful, and perhaps most beautiful buteo, deserving of its Latin name, regalis. The Richardson's ground squirrel constitutes over 95% of the dietary prey mass (Schmutz et al. 2008). Ferruginous Hawks breed in western North America from southeast Washington, southeast Alberta, southern Saskatchewan, and southwest Manitoba, south through the Great Basin and western Great Plains to northern Arizona and northwest Texas. It winters from northern California and southwest Nebraska south to central Mexico (Bechard and Schmutz 1995).
In Blakiston's time in the late 1850s, the prairies were kept open by trampling bison herds and by frequent grass fires, reducing aspen parkland to a narrow rim south of mixed forest. The Ferruginous Hawk relies on that open grassland, and its range has diminished as settlers plowed the land and the aspen parkland has spread southward.
Laurence B. Potter (1930) wrote that, just west of Eastend in 1905, "ten or a dozen of this fine hawk's nests might have been easily found in a day's walk? but "in 1929 in the same time and areas I was rewarded by finding one nest.? Through 2015 it is still fairly common in the remaining band of grasslands along the western and southern edges of our province, many in former PFRA pastures, although it has vacated nearly 40% of its original Saskatchewan range since European settlement, and sparsely occupies another 40% (Houston and Bechard 1984).
Original text by C. Stuart Houston. Text adapted and expanded upon by Daniel J. Sawatzky
Read more about the Ferruginous Hawk in the Birds of Saskatchewan here.
Recommended citation: Latremouille, L. M. 2025. Ferruginous Hawk in Latremouille, L. M., S. L. Van Wilgenburg, C. B. Jardine, D. Lepage, A. R. Couturier, D. Evans, D. Iles, and K. L. Drake (eds.). 2025. The Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Saskatchewan, 2017-2021. Birds Canada. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan https://sk.birdatlas.ca/accounts/speciesaccount.jsp?sp=FEHA&lang=en [09 Nov 2025]
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