Sunday, October 30, 2011

Buzzard ID


Any ideas on this one. Photos taken between Ringstone Edge and Boothwood on or abouts 15th October by a member of the public.
Top photo resembles Rough Legged Buzzard although the tail pattern looks a bit odd, bottom pic also resembles Rough Leg or abbarrent Common Buzzard ??. Another question is how do you get so close to a wild bird.

5 comments:

David Sutcliffe said...

I cannot go with Common Buzzard mainly because the face is too 'kind' looking. They look much more aggressive than this one.
It looks more like a Rough-legged but I just can't see a truly wild bird allowing such a close encounter!
This is a right tester.
A juv R L does have pale/white primary bases but the tail markings don't look just right either. Baffled!

AndyC said...

It does look like a juv RL,even the iris looks pale if you enlarge the pic.Tail pattern does look a bit odd but the wings look bang on...how you get that close for a photo is puzzling unless it was exhausted.???There was a influx of RL at that time in the county/country.??

Jim Welford said...

Could be the same bird seen over the border a couple of days before

http://birdguides.com/iris/pictures.asp?mode=search&sp=30184&rty=0&r=1&v=0&off=321976

martynbirder said...

this does look good for RLB, well except for the tale pattern which does not look quite right, but how variable is this feature, I've dug through Raptors Of The World (Ferguson-Lees) and Raptors of Europe and the Middle East (Forsman) and BWP but they do not mention any variation in tail pattern although photos in Forsman do show some variation

enlargment of the flying photo does seem to suggest rather thick legs ie feathered

the point about approaching it so close is interesting as I've always thought that RLB is like other arctic species ie Phalaropes that are very approachable

saying all that although I've seen lots of Buteo spp my experience of RLB is very limited

I'd go for it being a RLB

I'd be interested to hear any other comments

Matt Bell said...

I agree Martyn. I personally have found rough leg's to be much more confiding than common buzzards. I saw one on fence post next to a lane in Germany a few years ago, initially from some distance, and was pretty thrilled. It then stayed there as I approached, and pretty much walked past it.