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Those are great pics WTM, whereabouts were they taken?

I must admit I have great difficulty in identifying some of the different species of raptors, ie the Steppe and this one but can see the difference now, the eye colour and the bill makes it unique.

Elsa it was seen in the North West province. Yes, I agree that it is not always easy to id between the 2. Had great sightings of the Steppe too.

Honey Buzzard

Slighly bigger than the Steppe Buzzard, with a longer tail and smaller head. Immature birds lack the distinct tail bands andf have brown eyes. Prefers wooded country.

Has anybody seen this bird?

Yes. In Newlands forest (the entry point at the reservoir where the SANParks helicopters are) on 10 March 2007.

Had good views of it in flight but no photos of it unfortunately.

Seen HB in that unmentionable Elephant reserve in Zwa-Zulu on the Mozambique border last year November (also picked up Plain-backed Sunbird there).

Seen HB in TMNP, below Elephants Eye cave near Tokia, Quite a few sightings this summer and last but all in flight, sorry no pics!

I went out for on a high scale birding operation for lifers yesterday afternoon in the Pretoria area. After doing over 5km of "klapping" toes through bush, forest and vleis without ticking any lifers I was starting to ponder whether my mission was on the brink of failure. I decided to head to a part of town where I have not been to for a few years now and it was great to see that my old stakeouts still held their various specials.

I was walking through a stand of pine trees with imminent weather threating to finally wash my hopes away for good when I heard a loudish "whoosh" as I flushed something out of the tall pines.

I turned around just in time to see a remarkably sizable bird of prey gliding through the trees and landing on a branch about 200m away from me. I was astonished by the size of the bird as I had been when I last saw a Black Sparrowhawk earlier this year. At first glance the bird looked to be the same size and even slightly bigger than a Black Sparrowhawk and together with the light coloration it had I just new that I had something very special on my hands here.

I got a good look at it through the bins as it was perching on the branch. There was very little doubt by now after seeing a smallish pigeon-like head, long tail and light coloration that it was indeed a ripsnorter of a sighting in the form of European Honey-Buzzard.

It flew off once more which forced me to play a round of hide and seek with it. It was quite reminiscent of my days as a young boy when my brothers and I had played cowboys and crooks in open velds and in blue gum tree stands.

I crept from blue gum tree to blue gum tree, kneeling behind bushes and eventually managed to get a great look through the bins at it just as a ray of sun broke through the dark clouds. The bright yellow eye, indicated by some guide books as a sign of a female bird was as prominent as a zit of a 12 year old schoolboy's forehead!

Back home I looked through my guide to confirm the size of it and as I thought it to be, slightly bigger than a Black Sparrowhawk.

This was taken by Colin de Villiers in 4 Elder Street Bryanston X3 on the 10th November, apparently it's still around! Thanks Cherries for all the info...

We spotted one of these at Northern Farm last Sunday on a Wits Bird Club outing.

Just below the bird hide dam

S63 Pafuri, Jan 2010


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Juvenile photographed today in the Solleveld Nature Reserve, South of Den Haag.

Juvenile.