I think its a dove. I always assumed its a reference to the dove on noah's arc finding that sprig of whatever it found when the flood waters went down. But to be honest, thats a crazy far stretch, so your guess is as good as mine.

So, my dudes have not yet learned how to make pointy sticks, but they have hunting hawks?

I assumed they got out their and tilled the land with their hands. I am empire, so my dudes are not weak little fleshy humans like you kingdom folks. They are strong and capable of actually doing things without needing critters to help.

The hawk fetches building supplies, duh.

At first I thought it was so the pioneer could find things by having a trained whateverbird flying around scouting. But that really doesn't make any sense. The pioneer is just a guy with a tent or two and a wooden barricade in his backpack.

Still the picture is awesome, so I say keep it!

I say the picture should be used for something more awesome than a pioneer. And the pioneer pictures should look like an actual pioneer, not some poet.

The filename of the portrait is "Kingdom_Scout1.png", so I assume the falcon has something to do with visual range and that the picture was not ment as a pioneer portrait when it was drawn.

What I want to know is, is the person a guy or a girl?

"There is no Pioneer Unit Portrait."

How about this interpretation:

The hawk-like flying bird is the sole descendant of doves, adapted to the harsh world of elemental.  So, the pioneer has a dove because pioneers create settlements, and so they also hope for a peaceful existence. Doves (sometimes) symbolize peace on terra.