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Possibly Booted Eagle? (1 Viewer)

S

Stevebirder

Member
This is one of a pair, just dots in the sky circling high hills towards the NW of Tenerife this April. All I could think of was Booted Eagle?
 

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bare tarsi (last image) exclude Booted Eagle and leaves us with Common Buzzard and Short-toed Eagle. Long fingers, whitish bird and typical hanging in the wind with feet hanging down just perfect for STE (most probably second cal year with such white head)
 
For what its worth. I think this is just a Common Buzzard (a widespread species on Canaries), especially as the OP mentions a pair together.
 
We saw a number of CBs on the visit, and others, but somehow this struck us as a bit different; long "fingers", dangling legs, and quite active.
 
I see a pale Common Buzzard here too. The wing looks too slim and the hand too tapering for a Short-toed Eagle. The wing formula, with seemingly just five fingered primaries, also suggests a buteo.
 
lou salomon said:
...It has 5 fingers, so, case is settled.
Click to expand...

Lou, could well be a Buzzard, but I don’t think it is that straightforward
https://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=588824
1. would you see the 6th finger on this bird in a low quality pic? Or do I see a hint of a 6th finger in the OP?
2. have you ever seen such a long alula in a Buzzard?
3. I have never seen a white Common Buzzard on the Canary Islands but I was never in Tenerife
 
Why not a Bonelli’s? Birds from the various LIFE BONELLI projects over the past few years (and ongoing) in various parts of the Med are beginning to disperse quite widely. Often showing 5 fingers in flight, plumage impression could fit, (and individuals have been tracked crossing straits of Gib). They do have feathered tarsi but not so much that could not be swept back in flight when legs ‘hang’

(Just because two birds were seen together, it doesnt mean they were a pair or even the same species)

Just a thought.

https://www.jpgbirding.com/Birds-Raptors/Bonellis-Eagle/i-BtF8kb5
https://www.petzl.com/fondation/projets/conservation-aigle-de-bonelli?language=en
 
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FWIW I thought the head shape perfect for a Buteo and too small for Short-toed and Bonelli's, lacking the latter's large deep bill and generous strong neck. To me, the wing length is too short too.
 
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Such a whitish bird would be an adult or at least 4cy if Bonelli's Eagle and in that case it would show the black midwing line. Wing shape also wrong.
 
So buteo buteo then by majority view ;)

Although personally I’m not convinced by the 3rd image for buteo at all, noting length of alula for example, and not quite right re aging plumage Lou, an early June 3cy could look very pale on the underparts, especially in low definition, high contrast lighting, and on my tablet screen, the photos do not suggest a quality that any underwing pattern could be visible imo but the bulging secondaries etc are, I agree, not what we can see in any of the images

http://www.netfugl.dk/pictures.php?id=showpicture&picture_id=40591
 
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extra photo

Thanks to all for the discussion, here is another (pretty poor) photo which shows rather bare legs, if that helps
 

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It is definitely Buteo buteo insularum. Shape is straightforward (except against "Long-legged Buzzard", see below, and whitish plumage is common in Eastern and Central Canaries). See for example the darkened sides of belly, excluding all species cited but buzzards.

Note that classification on buzzards has to be reviewed. So-called "Long-legged" Buzzards from North Africa (cirtensis) is structurally closer to Common Buzzard than to real Long-legged (rufinus); they (buteo and cirtensis) interbreed in Spain and their voice is similar. I don't see any reason to keep cirtensis in Long-legged B.

Our birds in the Canaries have extremely similar plumage to those of cirtensis of Maghreb. I tested once, in 2015, to label, on a birding forum, a photo of buzzard taken in Fuerteventura as "unidentified" buzzard from Morocco. It was immediately identified as "Long-legged".

Well, in summary, OP bird is a usual type of pale buzzard seen in the Canaries, today labelled Buteo buteo insularum or simply "Common Buzzard".
 
Valéry Schollaert said:
Note that classification on buzzards has to be reviewed. So-called "Long-legged" Buzzards from North Africa (cirtensis) is structurally closer to Common Buzzard than to real Long-legged (rufinus); they (buteo and cirtensis) interbreed in Spain and their voice is similar. I don't see any reason to keep cirtensis in Long-legged B.
Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more. How far, I wonder, is the inclusion of cirtensis within Long-legged Buzzard more to do with our human bias towards visual details like plumage rather than considering shape, behaviour etc when assigning a bird to a particular species. Have there been any DNA studies on these birds and, if so, what does it suggest? Would putting it within Buteo buteo raise just as many questions? Is splitting it as a novel species in its own right unsupportable?
 
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