Buse montagnarde

Identification

A small buzzard and quite similar to the steppe buzzard Buteo buteo vulpinus, the migratory subspecies of the Palearctic common buzzard which winters over most of Africa. The adult has brown upperparts with paler underparts with heavy brown blotches on the breast, belly, flanks and underwing coverts. The underside of the flight feathers is barred with a distinct black band along the rear edge of the wing. The tail is brown above, light grey below and shows faint narrow bars which are broadest just before the tail tip. Juveniles are buffier below and less heavily marked than the adults.

Taxonomie

The mountain buzzard and the forest buzzard are said to form a superspecies with the common buzzard and the Madagascar buzzard Buteo brachypterus, and may be also with the red-tailed hawk Buteo jamaicensis of North and South America and the rufous-tailed hawk Buteo ventralis of southern South America. The mountain buzzard has been classified as a subspecies of common buzzard, then split as a single species with the forest buzzard but nor these two are regarded as separate species.

Nom scientifique

Buteo oreophilus

Autorité

Hartert, EJO & Neumann, 1914

Ordre

Accipitriformes

Famille

Accipitridés

Genre

Buteo

Répartition et habitat

The mountain buzzard occurs in the mountainous regions of eastern Africa from Ethiopia, west through Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan and Rwanda to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo then south into Tanzania, Burundi and Malawi. This species occurs in montane forest and fragments of montane forest, including plantations of exotic trees such as eucalyptus. In the southern part of its range, i.e. Malawi, it is restricted to montane rainforest and does not hunt in open habitats outside the forest.

Migration

Resident species

Conservation

Tendance de la population

declining