Highland buzzard
| Highland buzzard | ||||||||||||
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Highland buzzard ( Buteo hemilasius ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Buteo hemilasius | ||||||||||||
| Temminck & Schlegel , 1844 |
The highland buzzard ( Buteo hemilasius ), also known as the Mongolian buzzard , is a member of the real buzzards ( genus Buteo ) from the hawk-like family (Accipitridae). It is common in the Central Asian highlands .
description
The highland buzzard is 57 to 67 centimeters long and has a wingspan of 143 to 161 centimeters. Males are one fifth smaller than females. It looks very similar to the smaller eagle buzzard and was previously regarded as its subspecies . It is just as variable in the color of the plumage , but larger and less red-brown in color. The barrel (tarsus) is partially feathered and covered with smaller scales .
Light morph
The light morph is gray-brown on the upper side with brown, elongated spots. The head is light with thin gray stripes. The dirty white tail has two to three indistinct, brown transverse bands at the outer end. The underside is also whitish, with brown spots on the flanks and goiter . The upper side of the wings is uniformly brown in color, the hems of the coverts are a little lighter brown, the underside of the wings is yellowish white and unsigned except for the brown areas on the wrists and the broad dark end band on the wing feathers. The iris is bright yellow.
Dark morph
The dark morph is almost completely black-brown, the underside is uniformly dark and without any markings, including the underside of the wings. Here the flight feathers are also darker and have a broad dark end band, but with significantly more dark transverse banding in the light morph. The light-colored tail is also banded dark across the whole length and has a broad end band, which the light-colored morphine lacks.
Fledglings
Young birds are similar to the light morph, but more longitudinally striped on the entire underside. The tail is brownish and dark transversely banded throughout. The iris is brownish.
habitat
The highland buzzard lives in open steppes , deserts and mountains, mostly at an altitude of 1000 to 4500 meters, less often from 500 to over 5000 meters. In winter it can also be found at sea level in some areas.
distribution
The breeding area in the Central Asian high mountains extends from the east of the Tianshan and the Altai , the east and west of Manchuria , the south of Tibet to the Himalayas .
- Wintering area
In winter, highland buzzards can also be found in Korea , north and central China , north India and Turkestan, and occasionally in Japan and south-east Iran .
literature
- Stanley Cramp , KEL Simmons (Ed.): The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume II: Hawks to Bustards. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1980, ISBN 0-19-857505-X .
- J. Ferguson-Lees, DA Christie: Raptors of the World. Christopher Helm, London 2005. ISBN 0-691-12684-4
Web links
- Buteo hemilasius in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed January 9 of 2009.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Buteo hemilasius in the Internet Bird Collection