Dec 6, 2010

A Raptor in the morning - The Himalayan Buzzard (Buteo burmanicus)

In an earlier posting I made mention of being lucky to encounter with another Raptor in the evening. My  encounter with this one was on the same day but in the morning. It was at 7.57 am to be exact. After taking a few 'shots' at the Raptor I took a quick look at my watch and recorded the time. It was perched on top of a tall tree on the right hand side of a ravine by the side of the road. Thanks to the morning sun there was good lighting where the bird perched.

After about 4 or 5 minutes it decided to change it's perch and flew downhill and perched on one of the long branches of another tall tree. I left my car by the roadside and followed it downhill on foot for about 60 odd meters. Selecting the best vantage point available I took a number of shots. It perched there for about 3 minutes or so before taking flight again, this time into the forest and disappeared into the trees.

What a good start to a birding day it was! And getting a Raptor to kick-start it was indeed a bonus! My motivation was immdiately buoyed and had a good feeling that the rest day of the day would be good was later proven right. More posting of the day's other 'captures' later.

Here are a few photos of this Raptor.





Cheers!

P.S. Would be most grateful for assistance to ID this Raptor. TQVM.

10 comments:

  1. My guess is Black Kite. Distinctive face and especially the tail.

    WW

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  2. where did you get this? interesting, not a very common species in Malaysia....

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  3. Thanks WW for your opinion. Cheers!

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  4. Thanks Terence. Raptors are difficult to ID, especially those that are occasional visitors. Cheers!

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  5. I may be wrong and Terence may be right, but I can't find the Himalayan Buzzard listed in the peninsular Msia checklist. There is Common Buzzard or Buteo Buteo, tho. Care to give its scientific name, pls.

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  6. The scientific name is Buteo refectus aka Himalayan Buzzard. Cheers!

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  7. Hi Jy, location is Bkt Tinggi, Pahang. It is a migrant. Cheers!

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  8. Henry, the scientific name should be Buteo burmanicus.
    Wild wings it belong to the group Buteo buteo aka common buzzard but newly split into a species on its own.

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  9. Thanks Terence. It's getting to be a bit 'heavy going' to keep track of the names split and re-split etc LoL

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