From Opus

Photo by John Dempsey
Spitzkoppen Namibia, Oct 2004

Buteo augur

[edit] Identification

Length 55-60 cm.
Adult: White belly and chest, speckled grey, dark slate-grey body, rufous tail feathers, yellow beak grey tipped.

Immature: Upper parts brown with buff markings; below white with brown streaks; tail greyish below with light barring. Full adult plumage is attained at about 18 months.

[edit] Distribution

East Africa: Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, and eastern Zaire to Namibia and Zimbabwe.

[edit] Taxonomy

Buteo augur is monotypic^[4]; it is closely related to Archer's Buzzard B. archeri and Jackal Buzzard B. rufofuscus. Some authors include Archer's Buzzard as a subspecies or even a color morph of Augur Buzzard^[3].

[edit] Habitat

Prefers mountainous and hilly habitats, but also found in open woodland, savanna and grassland.

Photo by steinn
Kifufu, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, April 2000

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Diet

Its diet consists mainly of lizards and snakes birds; small mammals and insects are also eaten.

[edit] Breeding

It builds a large stick nest on a cliff or sometimes a tall tree. Two eggs are incubated mostly by the female for 39-45 days; the second egg hatches about a day after the first. The younger chick is usually killed by its sibling within a few days. The surviving chick fledges after about 30 days and the nestling period is about 50 days.

[edit] References

1. Gibbon, G. 2002. Roberts' Multimedia Birds of Southern Africa: Version 3. John Voelcker Bird Book Fund. www.sabirding.co.za
2. Oregon Zoo Animals: Augur Buzzard
3. Thread in the Taxonomy Forum discussing the relationships of Archer's Buzzard and Augur Buzzard
4. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist.

• List of references

[edit] External Links