Birdlist 43 birds Steppes Alentejo Portugal 18-02-2014 (1 Viewer)

On the 18h of February 2014 I went birding with clients to the steppes in the Alentejo region of Portugal. Here the link to the list of 46 different spotted birds in alphabetical order:

http://birdwatchingalentejo.com/list-of-46-spotted-birds-18-02-2014-steppes-alentejo-portugal/

Photo is of Cranes made this day.

Happy birdwatching,

Bert

I noticed you have Long-legged Buzzard on your list - any more details?

Simon Wates said:

I noticed you have Long-legged Buzzard on your list - any more details?

Click to expand...

No photo unfortunately. It was the overall patern of flight, wing shape, the very with underparts of the wings and the redish tones in tail.

Bert said:

No photo unfortunately. It was the overall patern of flight, wing shape, the very with underparts of the wings and the redish tones in tail.

Click to expand...

Ok Bert - the whole picture of Long-legged Buzzard in Portugal is rather confused - its not actually officially accepted by the CPR as having occured! - well yet, anyway.

One current line of enquiry has been the possibility of hybrid buteo x cirtensis (seems likely to me) in Iberia - which if true, makes things very difficult indeed - especially with imm. birds.

There have been some classic birds though - inc. 1 or 2 at Sagres last autumn that I was lucky to see well, Mick Sway's photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/micksway/10403397466/

- and like this older bird photographed by Josá Viana:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jose_viana/21343804/in/faves-62022918@N00/

If anyone could comment on these two birds could they?

Simon Wates said:

Ok Bert - the whole picture of Long-legged Buzzard in Portugal is rather confused - its not actually officially accepted by the CPR as having occured! - well yet, anyway.

One current line of enquiry has been the possibility of hybrid buteo x cirtensis (seems likely to me) in Iberia - which if true, makes things very difficult indeed - especially with imm. birds.

There have been some classic birds though - inc. 1 or 2 at Sagres last autumn that I was lucky to see well, Mick Sway's photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/micksway/10403397466/

- and like this older bird photographed by Josá Viana:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jose_viana/21343804/in/faves-62022918@N00/

If anyone could comment on these two birds could they?

Click to expand...

Hi Simon,

As you might remember I had one over our property which was indeed confirmed at the Surfbirds forum:

http://www.surfbirds.com/forum/show...egged-or-Common&highlight=long-legged+buzzard

There seem to be several about 30 in Eastern Alentejo but I do agree with you that it is rather confusing. But together with Long-legged Buzzard confirmed and what I saw yesterday I feel rather confident that it was indeed a Long-legged Buzzard.

Bert said:

http://www.surfbirds.com/forum/show...egged-or-Common&highlight=long-legged+buzzard

There seem to be several about 30 in Eastern Alentejo but I do agree with you that it is rather confusing. But together with Long-legged Buzzard confirmed and what I saw yesterday I feel rather confident that it was indeed a Long-legged Buzzard.

Click to expand...

That figure of 30 birds is now disputed - even by the team who carried out the census work. Since the hybrid opinion put out by authourities on this taxon, it is not known how many pure cirtensis there are around southern Portugal and its thought likely that there are very few indeed. I am personally not happy with the Buteos I see that are "lookalikes" - only when I see perfect examples am I at all convinced. The vast majority of birds I see that invoke thoughts of cirtensis I suspect are either hybrids - or better, a cryptic resident race/cline of Buteo buteo with an old lineage to cirtensis from N.Africa.

It would be good to hear Rui's thoughts on the matter.