buzzard/honey buzzard ID help please

jamesandpip · #1 (**permalink**) 02-07-2009, 02:37 PM

Could anybody advise whether this could be a honey buzzard? It was taken this morning close to the Nottingham/Lincolnshire border.

Many thanks,

James

johnwray205 · #2 (**permalink**) 02-07-2009, 03:10 PM

James this looks like juvenile common buzzard to me,
wing marks and tail bars look right for this.
John

Fieldfare95 · #3 (**permalink**) 02-07-2009, 08:24 PM

Not sure, but I think it may be a honey buzzard, the tail seems quite long.

Dogghound · #4 (**permalink**) 02-07-2009, 08:37 PM

I think its a pale common buzzard. The tail looks wrong for a honey buzzard.

RoyW · #5 (**permalink**) 02-07-2009, 09:49 PM

Juvenile Common Buzzard - as shown by the finely barred tail with no dark terminal band.

Honey-buzzard has a broad dark terminal band, and two dark bands about halfway along the tail, in all plumages and ages (and adult Common Buzzard has a broad terminal band).

Roy.

jamesandpip · #6 (**permalink**) 03-07-2009, 10:49 AM

Thanks for the advice, having not come across a honey buzzard before, I thought it was a possibility but not knowing the definitive characteristics, it was tricky to tell whether it might be one rather than just a pale common buzzard!

James