The long-legged buzzard (Buteo rufinus) is a bird of prey found widely in several parts of Eurasia and in North Africa. This species ranges from Southeastern Europe down to East Africa to the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. The long-legged buzzard is a member of the genus Buteo, being one of the larger species therein. This species is simultaneously considered relatively powerful and aggressive for its taxonomic group as well as a relatively sluggish raptor overall.Ferguson-Lees, J., & Christie, D. A. (2001). Raptors of the World. A&C Black. Like most buzzards, it prefers small mammals such as rodents, including gerbils, ground squirrels, voles and rats, also taking reptiles, birds and insects as well as carrion.Orta, J., P. F. D. Boesman, G. M. Kirwan, and J. S. Marks (2020). Long-legged Buzzard (Buteo rufinus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. Adaptable to a variety of habitats, long-legged buzzards may nest on a variety of surfaces, including rocks, cliffs and trees. It is a typical buzzard in its reproductive biology. The long-legged buzzard is widely distributed and appears to be quite stable in population. Therefore, it is considered as Least Concern by the IUCN.
Description
Form and colouring This is a large and fairly sturdy Buteo. The long-legged buzzard possesses a relatively large bill on a smallish head, long wings and a rather long tail and relatively long legs with powerful feet. The species tends to be considered sluggish, perching openly and prominently and in rather upright positions on a rock, crag or similar vantage point with a good commanding view; they will also perch regularly on artificial raised points such as pylons or utility poles. The long-legged buzzard also often takes to standing on the ground where it walks slowly, often waddling somewhat. This species is highly variable in plumage, with three to four main morphs. The adult pale morph long-legged buzzard has a rather plain pale head, coloured creamy rufous to light sandy with at most a few darker streaks on the crown and a dark line through an eye, usually with a more solidly dark nape. The pale morph possess dark brown upper parts with sandy buff streaks against a more conspicuous sandy-brown mantle and wing coverts with dark feather-eters causing a contrasting effect. The pale morph adult's tail is light rufous-orange. The paleness of the head in light morphs continues down to breast, the lower part of which having pencil thin streaks, while the belly down to flanks and trousers is a darker rufous-brown.Clark, W. S. (1999). A field guide to the raptors of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Oxford University Press, USA. Meanwhile, the intermediate adult are similar to pale adult but with somewhat richer colour, darker and more rufous upperparts and having a slightly darker and more patterned breast. The rufous morph, arguably separate from the intermediate, is more ochracecous overall and a darker rufous on the dark parts of the plumage against the more contrasting pale head. Some rufous adult long-legged buzzards can show a greyish tail with some banding and at times a darker subterminal band. Dark morph adults are all blackish-brown to black with some whitish streaks on nape. The tail of dark morphs are grey to brown-grey with a broad subterminal band and 7 rather narrow and faint bars although many completely lack the latter bars. Juveniles of the pale, intermediate and rufous morphs are similar to the respective adults of their morphs but tend to possess neater, paler edging above, especially on the tips of the greater and median coverts. Also the juveniles are more streaky about the head and breast with tail going from pale whitish darkening outwards to grey-brown with irregular faint brown bars. Dark morph juveniles are less dark than the adult of that morph, sometimes evidencing a small paler patch on breast. The juvenile dark morph long-legged buzzard's tail pattern differs from the dark adult, generally browner than adult with 3 very broad bands and a slightly broader subterminal band but dark morph juvenile tails apparently very variable. Juvenile plumage lasts up to 2–3 years when first breeding occurs. Adults have very dark brown eyes, while the eyes of juveniles are pale grey to greyish yellow turning light brown before darking. The cere and legs are both dull yellow.
In flight, the long-legged buzzards appears as a mid-sized rather broad-bodied raptor. Possessing an almost eagle-like silhouette, it tends to appear with a protruding head with a somewhat heavy bill, long broad wings with fairly straight edges and only slightly tapering hands with rounded five-fingered end. It is relatively long-tailed with the tail having a fairly rounded shape. Juveniles tend to be slimmer looking with narrower wings and more S-shaped trailing edges as well as a somewhat longer tail. Long-legged buzzards tend to fly with comparatively slow, deep beats and to have a relatively slow flight. The species glides with their arms raised and hands more level, wings noticeably kinked at carpals and soars in wide circles with the wings in shallow dihedral. The upward bent tips can enhance their eagle-like appearance. Long-legged buzzards often hover frequently and for extended periods.Porter, R. F. (1981). Flight identification of European raptors. A&C Black. In the flight, the whitish based orangey tail often looks all white at a distance and to stand out in its paleness against the dark rear body and the rear wings. The primary coverts and many greater coverts are blackish in adult long-legged buzzards with the greater coverts pale tipped. Adults are dark grey on the flight feathers with blackish bars radiating outwards on wingtips and on the trailing edges. The underwing coverts are usually lightly streaked with rufous in pale adults, while intermediate adult has a stronger contrast from pale head and breast to darker, browner upperbody and wing coverts, breast and wing linings. The flying rufous adult tends to look more uniform above with colours varying from ochre to tawny to darker rufous brown and to possess richer coloured darker parts, with the tail very variable in rufous morph.Forsman, D. (2016). Flight identification of raptors of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Bloomsbury Publishing. Dark adult in flight may appear with or without a pale nape patch. Dark morph long-legged buzzards above evidence pale bases to primaries, some less dark individuals showing slight contrast of brown-tinged wing coverts against blacker carpal areas with greyish cast to secondaries but tail more obviously pale and greyer and variable. Below dark morph adult striking contrasting from dark body and underwing coverts against pale flight feathers. Juvenile long-legged buzzards are evidently more streaky in pale, intermediate and rufous morphs with differing wing shape. Juveniles of the 3 morphs have comparatively uniform secondaries above with a paler based hand, the inner four primaries being thinly barred, the whitish tail becoming greyer brown and appear indistinctly barred distally. The trailing wing edges are more diffuse, greyer and narrower than on adults with a dark line often evidence along greater coverts. Dark morph juveniles in flight even more uniform above without darker trailing edges above and below greyish secondaries are much duskier-looking with broader but diffuse barring and often markedly wide trailing edges, this increasing the contrast against the dark tipped whitish hand.
Size
This is one of the largest species of the genus Buteo. Only two species, the upland buzzard (Buteo hemilasius) and the ferruginous hawk (Buteo regalis), notably exceed the average and maximum weight of nominate long-legged buzzards or attain similar wingspans, but several other species of the genus broadly overlap in body size with the long-legged buzzard (for instance the Galapagos, rufous-tailed and red-tailed hawks and the Augur, rough-legged and jackal buzzards). Length can range from and wingspan from .Ayé, R., Schweizer, M., & Roth, T. (2012). Birds of Central Asia. Bloomsbury Publishing.Borrow, N., & Demey, R. (2013). Field guide to the birds of Ghana. Bloomsbury Publishing. Mean wingspan may be about , with wingspans surely rivaling the upland buzzard as the greatest of all Buteo.Paz, U. (1987). The Birds of Israel. Stephen Greene Press.Mendelsohn, J. M., Kemp, A. C., Biggs, H. C., Biggs, R., & Brown, C. J. (1989). Wing areas, wing loadings and wing spans of 66 species of African raptors. Ostrich, 60(1), 35-42. The long-legged buzzard displays the typical size sexual dimorphism in favour of females, as they may be to 15% larger and can average up to 30% heavier. The mean body weight of males is , amongst a sample of 8 with weights ranging from , while the mean was in females, in a sample of 11 ranging from .Dunning, J. B. (2007). CRC Handbook of Avian Body Mass, 2nd edition. CRC Press, Cleveland. Meanwhile, the weights of migrating long-legged buzzards migrating in Eilat were in mature buzzards and in second-year juveniles.Shirihai, H., Dovrat, E., Christie, D. A., & Harris, A. (1996). The Birds of Israel. London: Academic Press. The measurements of live Indian long-legged buzzards were with slighter lengths of and wingspans of .Naoroji, R., & Schmitt, N. J. (2007). Birds of prey of the Indian subcontinent. Om Books International. Among standard measurements, nominate subspecies males attain a wing chord of while the female attains a wing chord of . In males the tail may measure while the female may measure . In tarsal length, males may measure while females attain .Dementiev, G. P., Gladkov, N. A., Ptushenko, E. S., Spangenberg, E. P., & Sudilovskaya, A. M. (1966). Birds of the Soviet Union, vol. 1. Israel Progr. for Scientific Translations, Jerusalem. In the nominate race, the culmen from the cere is in both sexes, with an average of in migrants at Eilat.Cramp, S., Simmons, K. L. E., Brooks, D. C., Collar, N. J., Dunn, E., Gillmor, R., & Olney, P. J. S. (1983). Handbook of the birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The birds of the Western Palearctic: 2. Hawks to Bustards. Mature migrants in Eilat measured from , averaging , on the enlarged hallux-claw.
Identification