Basic Principles
Common Buzzard is an abundant species across most of Britain. There are, however, far fewer opportunities to see European Honey Buzzard, a species which, although not even a close relative, represents a real confusion risk.
Common Buzzard
Common Buzzard breeds throughout the Palearctic and occurs in a number of subspecies. Europe hosts the largely resident or only partially migratory nominate form, while Finland and Russia are home to the subspecies vulpinus, known as ‘Steppe Buzzard’. This is a longdistance migrant wintering in southern Africa. It is not on the British list and would be very difficult to prove here. Steppe Buzzard is notoriously variable, occurring in a bewildering variety of colour morphs ranging from almost black to a bright foxy red.
In Britain Common Buzzard is resident and now very numerous, and one of the major ornithological success stories of the last 20 years has been the eastward march of this species. Long confined to traditional strongholds in the upland west and north, it has spread relentlessly east and is now an everyday sight throughout most of Britain. It is now our commonest diurnal raptor and in most places is the default large bird of prey, regularly seen perched along roadsides.
Common Buzzard has a very characteristic silhouette, appearing rather compact, broad, but short winged, with a short, broad head and a noticeably short, broad, squarecornered tail which is shorter than the wing-breadth. It has a distinctive rapid, stiff, rather laboured wing action and soars on characteristically raised wings with a fan-shaped tail, but can adopt a flatter-winged profile when gliding. Displaying birds also show a very striking fluid, slowmotion wing action and perform steep dives and tumbles. It can hover quite well too, sometimes for lengthy periods. Birds over breeding habitat in early spring are typically seen in pairs or small groups.
Common Buzzards come in a great variety of plumages, but most are mid-brown, with an often obvious dark upper breast ‘shield’ above a paler semicircular band. In flight, they show restricted dark primary tips, dark, often commashaped ‘wrist patches’, extensive whitish under-primary patches and finely barred tails. Adults have a broad dark trailing edge to the wings (more diffuse on juveniles) and a broad dark subterminal band to the tail. The darkest birds can suggest Marsh Harrier, with the palest suggesting Rough-legged Buzzard. These not infrequent pale birds are very striking, almost white on the head and underbody, with a white underwing, reduced dark ‘wrist patches’ and white in the scapulars, wing coverts, tail-base, uppertail coverts and rump.
Seen close, all Common Buzzards have a yellow cere, but the eye colour varies – pale with a dark pupil in juveniles and wholly dark in adults. The species is very vocal, giving a loud mewing sound which can be heard throughout the year.
European Honey Buzzard
This species is monotypic and breeds throughout most of Europe and east into Russia as far as western Siberia. It is a long-distance migrant, wintering widely in sub-Saharan Africa, and on its journeys to and from its wintering grounds it can be seen in enormous numbers at wellknown raptor ‘bottlenecks’. To the east, across most of Asia, it is replaced by its close relative, Crested Honey Buzzard – a rare vagrant to the Middle East.
European Honey Buzzard is exclusively a summer visitor to Britain, but is very uncommon and never seen in numbers. It is very thinly distributed and can be very elusive, but is best seen when performing its striking ‘wing-clapping’ display. Most encounters in Britain are with lone migrants in late spring and again in autumn. These mainly involve British breeders, but very occasionally easterly winds in the North Sea in autumn drift larger numbers of southbound continental migrants into eastern England.
Although not at all closely related to Common Buzzard, the basic size and silhouette are similar and the confusion risk is real. It is, however, rather different in structure, with a narrower body, longer wings, characteristically ‘pinched in’ wing bases, a longer, broader tail with rounded corners which is at least as long as the wing-breadth, and a narrower, more protruding head, often likened to that of a Common Cuckoo.
Autumn juveniles are structurally slightly less distinct, a bit shorter winged and therefore more likely to be mistaken for Common Buzzard. The flight is much ‘looser’ than that of Common Buzzard, with fluid, flexible wing-beats. European Honey Buzzard soars on flat wings and glides with the wings slightly drooped.
The plumages of European Honey Buzzard are many and complex. The basic pattern resembles Common Buzzard, but both adults and juveniles come in a wide variety of plumage types ranging from very dark to almost white. Most juveniles are of the dark type. In flight from below, adults of both sexes show oval ‘wrist patches’ on the underwing, broad dark trailing edges to the wings and plain or barred under-bodies. Males show a soft grey head, restricted dark in the primary tips, a broad pale band through the undersides of the flight feathers and a broad dark terminal band to the tail with a long gap before two narrower bands near the base. Barring can also be visible in the upperwing. Adult females are browner headed, have more dark in the primaries, more dusky secondaries and are more regularly barred in the wings and tail.
Juveniles have solidly dark outer primaries, oval ‘wrist patches’, dark-looking well-barred secondaries contrasting with paler under-primaries, a pale area in the greater underwing coverts and regularly spaced barring in the tail. Pale birds typically show coarse dark breast streaking and a dark eye-patch, while dark birds show no pale in the breast.
Seen close, adults have a yellow eye combined with a dark cere and bill, juveniles a dark eye with a yellow cere and a yellow base to the bill. Birds are silent except in the breeding season, when they may give a fluty peee-lu.