B -c s -eagle
BIRDING
Given their size, why are large brown raptors so hard to identify and tell apart? By Dianne Tipping-Woods and Joël Roerig
Look
ALBERT FRONEMAN
UP!
xx WILD winter 2016
Which big brown raptor is this? Its call is a whistled kwo kwo kwo kweeoo.
B
-c
s
-eagle (Answer on following page.)
www.wildcard.co.za
WINTER 2016 WILD XX
birding
In their first three years, the tails of bateleurs progressively become shorter with every moult.
The juvenile blackchested snake-eagle is easily confused with brown eagles.
xx WILD winter 2016
ALBERT froneman
O
n a road close to Lower Sabie in the Kruger National Park, we saw a brown snake-eagle doing a strange dance on the tar. We wondered why it was trotting around so clownishly, as there was no prey item in sight. What we didn’t question was whether our identification was right. It was brown, had no feathers on the legs and was sporting a funky crest. Right? Wrong! A few weeks later, far from Kruger, the penny dropped. We had been guffawing at the antics of an immature bateleur. We weren’t very experienced birders at the time and had jumped to our conclusions because of the colour and the hairdo, without taking other characteristics into account, such as the bill, eye colour, shape and unfeathered patch between bill and eye. We’d been thrown by a large brown job. It wasn’t our last big mistake. Many enthusiastic birders find raptors hard to identify because of similarly coloured plumage and proportions. While there are about 85 species of raptors and owls to tick in southern Africa, in Kruger the large brown jobs can be narrowed down to about 12 species. Kruger-goers often confidently declare raptors to be one species or another, but they can be quite wrong. One of the most common mistakes is to confuse raptors with feathered tarsi [feet – Ed.] such as the tawny, Wahlberg’s and migratory steppe and lesser-spotted eagles. As with little brown jobs, the rule of thumb for big brown jobs is that if you think it’s something rare, you’re probably wrong. “It’s a question of practice and experience,” says Polokwane-based Joe Grosel, a leading ornithologist who frequently gives well-attended courses about raptor identification to birders around the
The tiny male Pinhey’s Wisp only 20 mm in length www.wildcard.co.za
The contrast between a juvenile (far left) and adult bateleur (left) is marked.
country. A lifetime’s fascination with raptors means Joe’s eyes are constantly scanning the airways for the magnificent birds that could be soaring overhead. “If you don’t live somewhere where raptors are common, use your birding magazines or the internet to hone your identification skills,” he advises. “In a place such as Kruger, on a warm, clear day, there’s always something to see, but it’s not instinctual for most people to scan the sky. We forget to look up.” His love for birds and birding started young. “My mom said when I was a baby in the pram, I’d wake up and react to bird calls,” says Joe, who made his life’s passion his work as he conducts ecological surveys and specialised tours throughout southern Africa and provides training in the industry. Together with his team, Zonke iNyoni, he broke the record for spotting the most birds in 24 hours in South Africa in 2008, a staggering 325 species in a 50 kilometre radius. It’s a cool, wet weekend in Kruger when we speak to him in Skukuza, and this means there are lots of raptors perched on trees to spot. “There are virtually no thermals and the birds don’t want to expose their feathers through flying,” Joe explains with a characteristic narrowing of the eye as he spots something in the distance. On a sunny day, identifying large brown raptors poses different challenges. “As the thermals rise, you see a lot of silhouettes against the sky. Look at the length of the tail, the shape of the wing and the wings’ trailing edge. The underwing markings are important, too.” It’s not enough to note that the underwings are brown and white. “When you look up at a bird, divide the wing into three parts, the primaries, secondaries WINTER 2016 WILD XX
birding The tawny eagle can vary from quite brown (right) to blond (far right).
Sitting Pretty
and under-wing coverts, then try to be sure which parts are brown and which are white,” he suggests. People also often miss key features seen only when a bird opens its wings because they have their noses in the field guide instead of watching the bird. “I say watch the bird for as long as possible. Observe it and spend the time looking at what you see.” Then, check how common they are. At least seven to 10 raptors on the southern African list are rare vagrants. In the last
Use these 10 key features to make a positive identification on a perched large raptor.
ALBERT froneman
The tawny has the greatest range of prey and food items of any eagle.
1 What is the relative size of the bird? Use a common bird or object such as a wine bottle as a size reference.
two years, two raptors have been added to the list for southern Africa: red-necked buzzard, which was spotted in Caprivi and Kalahari, and the grasshopper buzzard, which was seen in Zimbabwe. “See if the bird you think it is occurs in the area and check if it’s a migrant.” As much as he knows, Joe is adamant he’s learning and seeing new things all the time. Anyone can be good at raptor identification, he confirms. Just don’t forget to keep looking up.
2 Are the tarsi (what most folks incorrectly refer to as the legs) feathered or bare? 3 If bare, what is the colour of the tarsi? 4 Colour of the eyes? 5 Are the face and lores (area between the bill and the eye) bare? 6 What is the colour of the ‘facial’ bare parts e.g. the cere and gape? 7 Is the plumage uniformly brown, mottled or streaked?
From left: African harrier-hawk, brown snakeeagle and Wahlberg’s eagle.
8 Check the bird’s status in your field guide. Is it a migrant or fairly common? Also have a look at its distribution. 9 Does it have a particular stance when perched or other obvious behavioural features?
What the Field Guides Don’t Say As with all bird identification, differentiate large brown raptors by putting the facts together and using a process of elimination.
Joe Grosel is hosting raptor courses in the Kruger National Park from 29 September to 2 October 2016, 6 to 8 November 2016 and 2 to 5 February 2017, as well as by prior arrangement for groups. Email joe@tembele. co.za for more info. xx WILD winter 2016
Tip 1 The first thing to look for is whether the raptor has feathers all the way down to its feet. If it does, you can immediately eliminate birds such as harrier-hawk, snake-eagles and bateleur.
Tip 3 Birding experts don’t definitively know how many colour morphs there are. Wahlberg’s in particular are notorious in this regard, with a spectrum of morphs from the light to the dark.
Tip 2 People tend to think all raptors are as common as the next one, but they’re not. In Kruger in summer for instance, especially in October and November, approximately 70 per cent of the raptors you see will be Wahlberg’s eagles. They outnumber the resident tawnies by about three to one. In the winter, it’s generally a brown snake-eagle or a tawny.
Tip 4 Juvenile and adult plumages differ. A young bateleur, for example, is mainly brown and can be confused with other large brown raptors. Be sure to check your field guide for changes in plumage. Tip 5 There are size differences within a species and between males and females, and variation within this, too.
Marietjie froneman
Hone Your Skills
10 What is the general shape of the bird? Does it have long feathers behind the head, a sleek, rounded head, a small crest, short tail, etc.?
www.wildcard.co.za
WINTER 2016 WILD XX
Given their size, why are large brown raptors so hard to identify and tell apart? By Dianne Tipping-Woods and Joël Roerig
Look
ALBERT FRONEMAN
UP!
xx WILD winter 2016
Which big brown raptor is this? Its call is a whistled kwo kwo kwo kweeoo.
B
-c
s
-eagle (Answer on following page.)
www.wildcard.co.za
WINTER 2016 WILD XX
birding
In their first three years, the tails of bateleurs progressively become shorter with every moult.
The juvenile blackchested snake-eagle is easily confused with brown eagles.
xx WILD winter 2016
ALBERT froneman
O
n a road close to Lower Sabie in the Kruger National Park, we saw a brown snake-eagle doing a strange dance on the tar. We wondered why it was trotting around so clownishly, as there was no prey item in sight. What we didn’t question was whether our identification was right. It was brown, had no feathers on the legs and was sporting a funky crest. Right? Wrong! A few weeks later, far from Kruger, the penny dropped. We had been guffawing at the antics of an immature bateleur. We weren’t very experienced birders at the time and had jumped to our conclusions because of the colour and the hairdo, without taking other characteristics into account, such as the bill, eye colour, shape and unfeathered patch between bill and eye. We’d been thrown by a large brown job. It wasn’t our last big mistake. Many enthusiastic birders find raptors hard to identify because of similarly coloured plumage and proportions. While there are about 85 species of raptors and owls to tick in southern Africa, in Kruger the large brown jobs can be narrowed down to about 12 species. Kruger-goers often confidently declare raptors to be one species or another, but they can be quite wrong. One of the most common mistakes is to confuse raptors with feathered tarsi [feet – Ed.] such as the tawny, Wahlberg’s and migratory steppe and lesser-spotted eagles. As with little brown jobs, the rule of thumb for big brown jobs is that if you think it’s something rare, you’re probably wrong. “It’s a question of practice and experience,” says Polokwane-based Joe Grosel, a leading ornithologist who frequently gives well-attended courses about raptor identification to birders around the
The tiny male Pinhey’s Wisp only 20 mm in length www.wildcard.co.za
The contrast between a juvenile (far left) and adult bateleur (left) is marked.
country. A lifetime’s fascination with raptors means Joe’s eyes are constantly scanning the airways for the magnificent birds that could be soaring overhead. “If you don’t live somewhere where raptors are common, use your birding magazines or the internet to hone your identification skills,” he advises. “In a place such as Kruger, on a warm, clear day, there’s always something to see, but it’s not instinctual for most people to scan the sky. We forget to look up.” His love for birds and birding started young. “My mom said when I was a baby in the pram, I’d wake up and react to bird calls,” says Joe, who made his life’s passion his work as he conducts ecological surveys and specialised tours throughout southern Africa and provides training in the industry. Together with his team, Zonke iNyoni, he broke the record for spotting the most birds in 24 hours in South Africa in 2008, a staggering 325 species in a 50 kilometre radius. It’s a cool, wet weekend in Kruger when we speak to him in Skukuza, and this means there are lots of raptors perched on trees to spot. “There are virtually no thermals and the birds don’t want to expose their feathers through flying,” Joe explains with a characteristic narrowing of the eye as he spots something in the distance. On a sunny day, identifying large brown raptors poses different challenges. “As the thermals rise, you see a lot of silhouettes against the sky. Look at the length of the tail, the shape of the wing and the wings’ trailing edge. The underwing markings are important, too.” It’s not enough to note that the underwings are brown and white. “When you look up at a bird, divide the wing into three parts, the primaries, secondaries WINTER 2016 WILD XX
birding The tawny eagle can vary from quite brown (right) to blond (far right).
Sitting Pretty
and under-wing coverts, then try to be sure which parts are brown and which are white,” he suggests. People also often miss key features seen only when a bird opens its wings because they have their noses in the field guide instead of watching the bird. “I say watch the bird for as long as possible. Observe it and spend the time looking at what you see.” Then, check how common they are. At least seven to 10 raptors on the southern African list are rare vagrants. In the last
Use these 10 key features to make a positive identification on a perched large raptor.
ALBERT froneman
The tawny has the greatest range of prey and food items of any eagle.
1 What is the relative size of the bird? Use a common bird or object such as a wine bottle as a size reference.
two years, two raptors have been added to the list for southern Africa: red-necked buzzard, which was spotted in Caprivi and Kalahari, and the grasshopper buzzard, which was seen in Zimbabwe. “See if the bird you think it is occurs in the area and check if it’s a migrant.” As much as he knows, Joe is adamant he’s learning and seeing new things all the time. Anyone can be good at raptor identification, he confirms. Just don’t forget to keep looking up.
2 Are the tarsi (what most folks incorrectly refer to as the legs) feathered or bare? 3 If bare, what is the colour of the tarsi? 4 Colour of the eyes? 5 Are the face and lores (area between the bill and the eye) bare? 6 What is the colour of the ‘facial’ bare parts e.g. the cere and gape? 7 Is the plumage uniformly brown, mottled or streaked?
From left: African harrier-hawk, brown snakeeagle and Wahlberg’s eagle.
8 Check the bird’s status in your field guide. Is it a migrant or fairly common? Also have a look at its distribution. 9 Does it have a particular stance when perched or other obvious behavioural features?
What the Field Guides Don’t Say As with all bird identification, differentiate large brown raptors by putting the facts together and using a process of elimination.
Joe Grosel is hosting raptor courses in the Kruger National Park from 29 September to 2 October 2016, 6 to 8 November 2016 and 2 to 5 February 2017, as well as by prior arrangement for groups. Email joe@tembele. co.za for more info. xx WILD winter 2016
Tip 1 The first thing to look for is whether the raptor has feathers all the way down to its feet. If it does, you can immediately eliminate birds such as harrier-hawk, snake-eagles and bateleur.
Tip 3 Birding experts don’t definitively know how many colour morphs there are. Wahlberg’s in particular are notorious in this regard, with a spectrum of morphs from the light to the dark.
Tip 2 People tend to think all raptors are as common as the next one, but they’re not. In Kruger in summer for instance, especially in October and November, approximately 70 per cent of the raptors you see will be Wahlberg’s eagles. They outnumber the resident tawnies by about three to one. In the winter, it’s generally a brown snake-eagle or a tawny.
Tip 4 Juvenile and adult plumages differ. A young bateleur, for example, is mainly brown and can be confused with other large brown raptors. Be sure to check your field guide for changes in plumage. Tip 5 There are size differences within a species and between males and females, and variation within this, too.
Marietjie froneman
Hone Your Skills
10 What is the general shape of the bird? Does it have long feathers behind the head, a sleek, rounded head, a small crest, short tail, etc.?
www.wildcard.co.za
WINTER 2016 WILD XX
