Buzzard or not?

[Jonners]

While we were on holiday on the west coast of Scotland in August, we were crossing to Tobermory on Mull when one of the boys spotted a large BOP over the island. It seemed too large for a Buzzard, but at that distance I can't be sure. Can anyone advise whether this IS a Buzzard or something else, from this photo? I realise that the photo does not give anything with which to compare size-wise. It's quite heavily cropped, but I do have some more similar ones:


And just for added interest, here's a slightly closer photo of a Golden Eagle taken in 2006 from another boat, this time south of Oban


All lessons gratefully received

[aeshna5]

Structurally it looks like a Buzzard to me.

[RoyW]

Originally Posted by aeshna5

Structurally it looks like a Buzzard to me.

I agree, looks like a Buzzard.

[Dave66]

Yes I would say that is a Buzzard too.

[artdemole]

Definitly Buzzard. Seen 6 circling round here in Peasedown St John an hour ago.

[Jonners]

Thanks guys. That was my gut feeling too, but before I cleared them, I just wanted to make sure.

[Picidae]

Originally Posted by Jonners

All lessons gratefully received

Distant raptors when they are moulting are always tricky Jonners because it's not always clear (on less than clear pics!) what the wing formula is and with distant solo raptors (any bird!) size is difficult to judge accurately. The 'wing formula' referring to the shape of the 'hand' of the projecting primaries. A buzzard has a 5 fingered hand whereas a Golden Eagle (the most likely confusion species here) has 6. The inner primaries look perhaps in active moult and it's not clear whether the outer primaries are all there in your pic but it looks as if they are. Having said that, if you note the shape of the base of the hand, it's much narrower in your first pic than the second of the GE, indicating a Buzzard sp. GE have a square shaped wing formula caused by the 6 extending primaries with p1 being shortish (as in buzzard but p9-p6 appearing roughly the same length, with a long p5 being almost the same length as p1. Even with primaries 'missing' in moult, the wing formula will still produce a square shaped 'hand' at the primary bases.

Another comparison which might prove helpful is that GE fly with the neck well extended beyond the shoulder (as you can cf. with your second and first pics) and soar and glide with carriage in a shallow 'V' where a buzzard soars on flattish wings but more often with a slightly kinked elbow. The GE glides with strongly bent up primary tips (which adds to the general gizz, along with wing formula) of a large plankish wing span although not as plankish as a barn door White Tailed Eagle (which has a very short tail btw).

In terms of distant plumage gizz, a GE will appear rather dark on the underparts (even young birds show little contrasting definition) and tail with greyish/whitish base. A Buzzard will show diffuse (young) or dark trailing edge to underwings that extends just to secondary tips, in GE, the secondaries are all dark so there's a less obvious trailing edge to the wing.

Lots of the above are subjective but hopefully helpful.

Btw. I also spotted a distant raptor soaring above the island 4-5 miles away on the way to Cragnuire and we all looked twice/three times! Despite soaring over a current known breeding location for GE, and despite having pretty brief views, the comparatively active flight, size, and wing carriage ruled out a GE and ruled in a Common Buzzard. Lots of both on Mull!

[Jonners]

Brilliant. Thank you Picidae. That's really very helpful, and worth hanging onto for future reference.