Some thoughts on the unusual buzzards in the south Cape area – William S. Clark

A few years ago Odette Curtis sent me some photos taken by Ann Koeslag of unusually plumaged breeding buzzards in the Tokai forest. I told her that the female looked like a rufous-morph Steppe Buzzard. I still feel that way. I visited the area in early June 2008 with Ann to look at the nesting area of another unusual buzzard. She showed me the 2007 nest. An adult buzzard gave alarm calls at us (it probably recognized Ann) as we approached the nest and flew away. Farther away from the nest, another buzzard also gave alarm calls. Both adults flew together up the hill side. I took distant photos of them. One, the larger and presumably the female, had uniformly dark rufous underparts, and the smaller, male, had paler rufous underparts, with a noticeable white U across the lower breast. Ann sent me photos of the male from the previous year. It was different from the present male, as it was a normal Forest Buzzard, albeit a heavily marked individual. I took photos of two different Forest Buzzard adults that flew at times with the rufous pair. We saw another adult buzzard with rufous underparts near Constantia, but only at a distance. Ann said that this is also a breeding adult. Ann told me that Andrew Jenkins had found a buzzard nest on a cliff on Table Mt with unusual adults. Andrew asked Rob Simmons to send me photos of the adult on the nest, which he did. This female also had rufous underparts. Ann told me that the male had uniformly dark brown underparts. Two days later I spent a day with Jessie Walton near Elgin, again looking for unusual buzzards there. We saw a distant rufous bodied buzzard flying in the morning. And later a uniformly dark rufous adult perched. I took photos of it. Rob Martin was with us in the morning, and he told me of an adult that had uniformly dark brown underparts and was breeding with a Forest Buzzard. This was in 1981 in Swellendam. Andre du Toit gave me some images of a pair of adults and a juvenile on a nest at ‘Clifford’s Farm’. Both adults had rufous underparts, but their chick had darkly streaked underparts. John Graham sent me photos taken in April 2008 of a pair of adult buzzards near Elgin. Both were similar to adult Steppe Buzzards, one with uniformly rufous underparts, most likely the same individual that I took photos of. The other was like a more typical adult Steppe Buzzard, what is called a grey-brown morph. Trevor Hadiker sent me a pic of a darker Grey-brown adult, again very much like a darker Steppe Buzzard. It was also taken in Tokai on 13 April, presumably later that one would expect a Steppe Buzzard to be there. I have seen adult Steppe Buzzards in South Africa on three occasions during the Austral winter, when they all should have been back in Asia. However, none of these sightings were in the breeding range of Forest Buzzard. Adri Barkhuysen wrote me that he saw a rather tame rufous buzzard in a Forest Buzzard territoriy in Port Elizabeth last year. In my 2007 Ostrich paper on the taxonomic status of the Forest Buzzard, I concur with others who argued that this taxon most likely had derived from Steppe Buzzards that remained in South Africa to breed, instead of returning to Asia. It would appear that this phenomena is ongoing, as all of the unusual buzzards appear much like adult Steppe Buzzards. On the other hand, it is possible that these different buzzards are ‘throw-backs’ to the founding species. DNA analyzes of both might give some insight as to which. I have scanned 14 different adult Steppe Buzzards in hand to show the range of variation in their adult plumages. They had been captured for ringing in Israel in the northern spring on their return to Asia. I will send this to anyone who requests it in three email messages of 5, 5, and 4 images. I also took many photos of similar buzzards in hand and flight during my last visit to Israel in March 2009. I encourage further detailed study of this phenomena, as it is most interesting and can help us better understand speciation. Particularly proving that some of the unusual buzzards (presumably Steppe Buzzards) are breeding with Forest Buzzards, documenting what the off-springs of these unions look like, how much of the breeding range of FB has these unusual buzzards, and many more questions that I’m sure that collectively you will ask. Thanks to all who gave me information, photos, and time on these odd buzzards. Please feel free to call on me for whatever help that I can provide.