European Honey-buzzard? Tajikistan (1 Viewer)

[PhilSteiner]

I photographed this bird in Dushanbe, Tajikistan this morning. At first I thought it was a dark Common Buzzard, but now I'm thinking it's better for a Honey-buzzard, especially looking at the shape of its head and face in the two photos where it's perched with the grassy hillside in the background.

If it is a Honey-buzzard, is it European or Oriental? eBird doesn't flag either as rare here.

 

[Sangahyando]

It looks like it has orbital ridges, which should exclude any honey-buzzard (also, the tail would be a bit too short). Looks more like a Buteo species to me.

 

[MJB]

It looks like it has orbital ridges, which should exclude any honey-buzzard (also, the tail would be a bit too short). Looks more like a Buteo species to me.

In Tajikistan, immature Steppe Buzzard Buteo buteo vulpinus should be a candidate... The imaged bird seems to be in partial moult, and may be a full or hybrid fox-red morph. That's just my interpretation of some of the info in the account by Dick Forsman in his Flight Identification of Raptors of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Yes, I know the book doesn't cover Central Asia, but nevertheless that's part of the distribution of the highly variable vulpinus.
MJB

 

[01101001]

Seen close, adult [European Honey-Buzzard]s have a yellow eye combined with a dark cere and bill, juveniles a dark eye with a yellow cere and a yellow base to the bill.

(from Common and European Honey Buzzards photo ID guide)

So, it should be either a yellowish iris or a yellowish cere (not both) for it to be a European Honey-Buzzard.

For Oriental Honey-Buzzard, it appears that only a 'juvenile/immature female' could show a combination of a yellowish iris and a yellowish cere (from Oriental Honey-buzzard – sexing and aging – Bird Ecology Study Group). Whether it's that or not, I can't tell, but see the answers above. (Nice photos.)

EDIT: I stand to be corrected, but the pattern of barring on the tail feathers as visible in pictures 1 and 3 should also exclude both European and Oriental Honey-Buzzard (as, for example, drawn here: Plate 13 - Buzzards, Kites and Osprey - A Field Guide to Birds of Armenia ::Acopian Center for the Environment, or seen in images from ML).