Buteo sp

[Fabian Schneider]

Hello, I need help to determine this Buzzard caught in Sfântu Gheorghe, Danube Delta (Romania) in October 2007: Buteo buteo "normal"? Buteo buteo vulpinus? Buteo rufinus?

Thanks

[macrourus]

With such morph we need all possisble measurements chiefly wing chord and legs-feet and bill hight...

However, this bird could be called Buteo buteo buteo ....may be just some vulpinus gene influx as could be one of the eastern buteo showing some rufous tones chiefly on underwing coverts and showing such a broad and marked dark trailing edge to underwing contrasting with very narrow and palish other barring, and almost white brilliant "hand" base...

However, not anything definitive and all among buteo horrible variability

Surely ba far not at all a rufinus that has nothing to do with such bird

Andrae Corso
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[Olvedi Szilard]

This bird shows intermediate features between Buteo buteo buteo and Buteo buteo vulpinus.
I personally saw more times in Dobrudja mixed pairs of the two subspecies. It could be an offspring of such a pair.
The very white seconderies on the underwing suggest 'vulpinus' as well as the general roufous colouring of the birds body.
The lack of pale, almost whitish, eyebrow is a 'buteo' feature, as well as the colour of the uppertail, wich doesn't show the the typical reddish colour of the 'vulpinus'- type birds. Also it has to be considered that this bird is moulting into its adult plumage, fact proven by its some unmoulted juvenile primaries, and it may be due to this that it has a 'buteo' type tail, beacuse it didn't started to moult it's tailfeathers yet.

However both subspecies show a vide variaty of colour forms so in some cases is difficult to determine them for sure.

Ölvedi Szilárd-Zsolt

[macrourus]

However that bird its a fully adult bird as the tail its fully adult with not a single juv.-type rectrices as is possible to seen by the broad and marked terminal bar, also secondaries are full set adult-type as not a single retained juv. that would show narrower and less contrasting terminal bar (usually in advanced 2nd cy or also in 3rd cy the S4 and S7/9 are retained)...primaries are of different generation due to cosequential moult waves as many (most ) Buteo do as well as Marsh harrier and many other medium siezed accipitridae a consequential moult with several waves almosy like in eagles... So, the bird showing 2 or 3 differetn waves is at least a 3y old bird...
Cheers

Andrea

PS: intermediate population from E Europe are effectively similar to that but often even more rufous all over, chiefly on tail... but in most we need DNA to knwo the parents
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