Biancone
to err is human
The size of Common Buzzard relative to Golden Eagle very often arises when discussing the identification of a "large" raptor in flight in UK uplands. A couple of weeks ago I was photographing a young Golden Eagle (in the northern Apennines, Italy), very distant and veiled in a haze of humidity, and by chance captured an image of a Common Buzzard as it passed immediately in front of the eagle while diving at it, encouraging it to move on. I thought it might be of interest because it demonstrates unambiguously what people mean when they describe an eagle as "massive" in relation to a buzzard! Perhaps the effect is slightly exaggerated because the Buteo is a little foreshortened whereas the Aquila is directly transverse, but the buzzard is also a little closer than the eagle. I know it's technically a poor image, and very heavily cropped, but most similar examples I've seen show the buzzard to one side or the other so its spatial location relative to the eagle is uncertain.
Brian
Brian