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Common Buzzard or Long-legged Buzzard? (Crimea, Ukraine) (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter khustochka
- Start date
Leaubellon
Well-known member
Light morph Long-legged for me (whitish underpart/dark thighs, rufous rail, body/wing proportion).
lou salomon
the birdonist
it is a vulpinus-lookalike/intergrade buteo-vulpinus of common buzzard.
compact structure (proportionally shorter wings) and pale medium coverts bar clinch the ID. reddish tail is not uncommon among eastern buzzards, occures in western/central european buzzards as well, though.
compact structure (proportionally shorter wings) and pale medium coverts bar clinch the ID. reddish tail is not uncommon among eastern buzzards, occures in western/central european buzzards as well, though.
khustochka
Well-known member
Lou, thank you for concise explanation!
Robin Edwards
Well-known member
Tib78
Well-known member
Well that one is a typical and easy Steppe...
As I said, there are more criteria in favour of Steppe: the median coverts mentionned by Lou, the barred tail. But both species are so variable however...
Still, on a single picture, I think it's quite hard to judge the structure correctly, and actually the body of this bird is quite barrel-shaped IMO, thus not exactly what I would expect from a Steppe.
khustochka, what colour were the lesser underwing coverts?brownish?rufous?orangish?
Robin Edwards
Well-known member
Indeed so. I think this is close enough to Steppe though to rule out Long-legged, if only in structure from this pic.
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