Buteo sp. ? Atlas, Morocco (1 Viewer)

[Gduff]

Hi,

I've seen this bird from a very long distance ; I'm having difficulties to identify...
Location : Agouti, Atlas, altitude 1850m

Is it an Atlas LLB ? Or just a Common Buzzard ?

thanks

edit: photos weren't attached

 

[foresttwitcher]

Hi,

I've seen this bird from a very long distance ; I'm having difficulties to identify...
Location : Agouti, Atlas, altitude 1850m

Is it an Atlas LLB ? Or just a Common Buzzard ?

thanks

No photo!

 

[TheBlackGrouse]

Can't remember seeing a Common Buzzard in the Netherlands with this underwing pattern, especially the contrast and the black trailing edge.

 

[CARERY]

Uniform plain reddish tail, dark carpal patches etc. make it an Atlas LLB

 

[Muppit17]

Just a minor comment on the OP. Common Buzzard is a very scarce bird in Morocco and nearly all of those records are in the north.

Atlas LLB is the default raptor in the south.

 

[Val35]

Isn't Atlas LLB finally considered as a subspecies of Common Buzzard ?

 

[Muppit17]

Isn't Atlas LLB finally considered as a subspecies of Common Buzzard ?

Not yet, and may be never!

It appears that it is best thought of as distinctive in its own right. The issue is the Eastern population of this western group, especially as it is said to occur into the Arabian peninsula. I haven't seen any recent DNA analysis.

However, you have to say it is odd that there are resident Common Buzzards on the Canaries, and that there are none on the NW African mainland

 

[Valéry Schollaert]

Isn't Atlas LLB finally considered as a subspecies of Common Buzzard ?

It is closer to Common Buzzard than Long-legged, but it can be a separate species ; I consider "Maghreb Buzzard" as a monotypic species since 25 years.

 

[david kelly]

Not yet, and may be never!

It appears that it is best thought of as distinctive in its own right. The issue is the Eastern population of this western group, especially as it is said to occur into the Arabian peninsula. I haven't seen any recent DNA analysis.

However, you have to say it is odd that there are resident Common Buzzards on the Canaries, and that there are none on the NW African mainland

It could be that there was a population of Common Buzzards in western North Africa, that colonised the Canaries before they were replaced by the ancestral Atlas LLB. As I understand it quite a lot of the buzzards in southern Spain seem to have Atlas LLB genes, as do the birds on Fuerteventura.