Is this a rough-legged hawk/buzzard? - Northwest Turkey (1 Viewer)

[cduruk]

Common buzzards are common in this area in winter, but there are also previous sightings of the rough-legged hawk/buzzard. The pale part on the upper tail seemed big to me for a common buzzard. Then a rough-legged? (Northwest Turkey, yesterday, January 29th.) Thanks in advance,

 

[Alexander Stöhr]

Hello,
no its a Common Buzzard.
I can only repeat Toms words here(thank you Tom): a strange looking Buzzard is mostly/often a Common Buzzard and not a RLB.
This is also true in NE-Germany, where RLB are regular in winter.

Please note that in the majority of RLB the base of the tail is clearly white (even in birds with many bars there), contrast is regular as pronounced as in a Wood Sandpiper.
Complete lack of a paler area on upperhand is also bad for most plumages of RLB, as is uniform brownish head without any pale blaze above the bill/darker chin/dark eye-liner streak behind eye (or a combination of them)

 

[cduruk]

Hello,
no its a Common Buzzard.
I can only repeat Toms words here(thank you Tom): a strange looking Buzzard is mostly/often a Common Buzzard and not a RLB.
This is also true in NE-Germany, where RLB are regular in winter.

Please note that in the majority of RLB the base of the tail is clearly white (even in birds with many bars there), contrast is regular as pronounced as in a Wood Sandpiper.
Complete lack of a paler area on upperhand is also bad for most plumages of RLB, as is uniform brownish head without any pale blaze above the bill/darker chin/dark eye-liner streak behind eye (or a combination of them)

Alexander, thank you very much for the explanations. These will help me in identifying a real RLB when I see one, hopefully

 

[Alexander Stöhr]

Hello,
I hope it does!
There are two very good ID papers in german, but I hope they are helpful to you:
Ingo Weiß and Christoph Moning: www.zobodat.at/pdf/Avifaunistik-Bayern_2_0086-0110.pdf
Gerold Dobler and Richard Schneider: Limicola: Downloads

 

[cduruk]

Hello,
I hope it does!
There are two very good ID papers in german, but I hope they are helpful to you:
Ingo Weiß and Christoph Moning: www.zobodat.at/pdf/Avifaunistik-Bayern_2_0086-0110.pdf
Gerold Dobler and Richard Schneider: Limicola: Downloads

Thanks a lot, I do not speak German but an old friend of mine who is also a bird watcher does, so we can go over these when we think we see a RLB.