White-eyed Buzzard (Butastur teesa)

White-eyed Buzzard

Subspecies

Genus	Species	subspecies	Region	Range
Butastur	teesa		OR	Pakistan to Burma

Genus

Members of the genus Butastur are medium-sized hawks, with long and pointed wings, and a medium length tail. The bill is rather weak, the basal portion and cere being brightly coloured. The legs are relatively short and reticulate, with a row of larger scales down the front. The colour pattern is subdued, rufous brown, grey and whitish. The young are not very different from adults. Butastur is found in Africa and tropical Asia. The four species form a super-species; though there may be some overlap between two of them. One nests in Japan and north Asia, but is highly migratory.

Physical charateristics

This slim and small sized hawk is easily identified by its white iris to the eye and the white throat and dark mesial stripe. A white spot is sometimes visible on the back of the head. When perched the wing tip nearly reaches the tip of the tail. The ceres are distinctly yellow and the head is dark with the underside of the body darkly barred. In flight the narrow wings appear rounded with black tips to the feathers and the wing-lining appears dark. The upper wing in flight shows a pale bar over the brown. The rufous tail is barred with a darker subterminal band. Young birds have the iris brownish and the forehead is whitish and a broad supercilium may be present

wingspan min.:	86	cm	wingspan max.:	96	cm
size min.:	36	cm	size max.:	43	cm
incubation min.:	19	days	incubation max.:	23	days
fledging min.:	0	days	fledging max.:	0	days
broods:	1		eggs min.:	2
			eggs max.:	4

Range

Oriental Region : Pakistan to Burma

Habitat

The usual habitat is in dry, open forest or cultivation. They are numerous in some areas but declining

Reproduction

The breeding season is February to May. The nest is loose platform of twigs not unlike that of a crow, sometimes placed in a leafless tree. The usual clutch is three eggs, which are white and usually unspotted. Both sexes share nest-building and feeding young; female alone incubates for about 19 days until the eggs hatch.

Feeding habits

They feed mainly on locusts, grasshoppers, crickets and other large insects as well as mice, lizards and frogs. They may also take crabs from near wetlands and have even been reported to take larger prey like the Black-naped Hare

Video White-eyed Buzzard

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_0r82onaQ4

Conservation

This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). The population trend appears to be fluctuating, and hence the species does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size is very large, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

Migration

Partial migrant

Distribution map

White-eyed Buzzard distribution range map

Planet of Birds