ML235633531

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

> Field Observation : Looked very compact & at the 1st instance suspected it to be a Jerdon's baza ,hence clicked pics - It did not give a typical OHB Jizz. Suspected to be an European Honey Buzzard , based on the below pointers, 1) Dark well defined carpal patches 2) Dark Terminal Band & 2 Finer tail bands (Second one is slightly subtle & visible lightly) 3) The wing banding pattern similar to Tail bands 4) Grey face with bright yellow Iris. 5) Absence of Gorget & Mesial stripes. > Response from Dick Forsman on the ID: Thank you for sharing your most interesting images! This looks indeed like a good male European Honey-buzzard (EHB), as shown by all the diagnostic features you mention in your original mail. It is interesting, that your record is not the first that comes to my attention. Since last autumn I have had two other reports of similar birds from India, one even fro Sri Lanka. Could it be that EHB has been overlooked in the past, rather than the species having become more numerous recently? Thanks to digital photography perhaps more cases like this can be expected in the near future. This is an interesting but also an important record, which deserves to be published. Article pulised in IB : http://indianbirds.in/pdfs/IB_16_2_AnandETAL_EuropeanHoneyBuzzard.pdf

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 60D

Lens

150-500mm

ISO

640

Focal length

500 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/9.0

Shutter speed

1/1250 sec

Dimensions

2052 pixels x 1377 pixels

Original file size

1.31 MB