Rare
Birds in Spain
Identification
 The
Long-legged Buzzard Buteo rufinus at Tarifa, Cádiz,
September 2000
by Dick Forsman
On 12.
9.2000, approaching Cazalla survey station, at 10 am, I noticed a
very rufous buzzard perched on a telegraph pole next to the road. The road
was heavily trafficed, so I decided to drive up to Cazalla and watch it
from there, just across the road from a distance of some 200 metres. To
watch it I used a Kowa 823 with a 20-60x zoom. After having studied it
for some 20 minutes, during which it did two attempts to drop onto prey
from the pole (showing
upperwing
and underwing patterns), I decided to approach it to take some photos.
I got to c. 30 m:s from the bird before it flew off and disappeared
into the mist following the valley east.
Roughly
the size of a Common/Steppe Buzzard Buteo buteo, thus considerably
smaller than nominate rufinus, perhaps with longer legs than in Steppe
Buzzard B.b. vulpinus, but this difficult to assess with certainty.
Tail
projected ca. 5 cms beyond the folded wing-tips. Bill considerably heavy
for the size of the bird, which was one character that looked very odd
and did not fit the impression of vulpinus. It was pale bluish grey
at the base with a darker tip.
Long-legged
Buzzard Buteo rufinus cirtensis. Juvenile bird observed at
Canteras watching point (near Tarifa) during Migres 2000.16.09. 2000. Observers:
Tomasz Kulakowski, Gabriela Sawicka & Swedish birders.Probably the
same bird observed also on 12th and 14th of Sep near Tarifa (Dick Forsman
et al.).Photographed with Minolta 7000, 75-300 lens with 1,7x converter
(Soligor) on Fuji 400.
©
Tomasz
Kulakowski
*Submitted
to Rarities Comittee of SEO and currently under study..
Ratonero
moro Buteo rufinus cirtensis.Juvenil. Canteras, Tarifa, Cádiz.
16.9.2000 © Tomasz Kulakowski.
Cita en estudio por el CR/SEO
Aligot
Rogenc Buteo rufinus cirtensis Juvenil. Canteras, Tarifa,
Cadis. 16.9.2000 © Tomasz Kulakowski.
Cita pendent d'homologació pel CR/SEO..
All
upperparts feathers (incl. mantle, scapulars and wing coverts) had a broad
rufous margin with a dark brown centre. The greater
coverts
and tertials/inner secondaries were already rather worn and brownish (still
very fresh and dark in juv. vulpinus at this time) but the tips
of the greater coverts still retained their paler tips.
Tail
(seen from above when perched) rather pale greyish brown centrally but
turning rufous towards tip and edges, very much like in vulpinus,
and the dark tail-bars were rather fine and sparse, finer and sparser than
on most vulpinus. Uppertail coverts deep rufous.
© Tomasz
Kulakowski
The
head was remarkably rufous, more so than on any juv vulpinus I have
seen, and unlike any juv. vulpinus it was uniformly coloured with
streaks only to the crown. The bird had a distinct dark malar stripe running
from the gape flange to below the eye and it also had a dark down-pointing
triangle on the nape.
The
underparts were more yellowish ochre with darker rufous brown flanks; the
breast was distinctly streaked with a darker area on upper breast (see
photos).
Underwing
coverts uniformly yellowish ochre with fine uniform streaking and the carpal
patch was typically dark and round. Seen from above in flight the primaries
showed a large pale area with darker bars, but it was not white and did
not differ
that
much from the patch of some juv. vulpinus. The iris was pale pearl-grey,
which is typical of a juvenile.
© Tomasz
Kulakowski
In conclusion:
The most important and distinctive characters of this juvenile African
Long-legged Buzzard Buteo rufinus cirtensis were the uniform,
unstreaked head, the heavy bill and the typical underwing coverts with
uniformly pale coloured and finely marked lesser, median and greater coverts
contrasting with round and dark carpal patch. Also the wear of the plumage
indicated an earlier breeding cycle than in Steppe Buzzard Buteo
buteo vulpinus.
N.B. Most
of the single characters that we noted on the bird can also be found in
juv. Steppe Buzzard (except for the few listed above). Excluding vulpinus
with certainty remains (at least in theory) a real challenge when identifying
stray African Long-legged Buzzards.
This
page is possible thanks to Tomasz Kulakowski
who sent us the photos and submitted the record to the CR/SEO and Dick
Forsman who provided the text and also submitted the record to the CR/SEO
and allowed us to put it in this web site for the benefit of birding community.
Photo headings written by Ricard Gutiérrez.
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