Upland Buzzard

Buteo hemilasius (Temminck et Schlegel, 1844)

2017-02-09 Gornaya Maevka, Chuy Valley	© Tatiana Menshikova

Biology

Rare, in places common resident. Inhabits the upland steppes and wide mountain valleys with rocks and cliffs. The data of biology of Upland Buzzard is very fragmentary. The spring movement is in end of February to March. Nest is built on rocks from the dry twigs; nest cup is lined with old grass, hair, rags, etc; and often used for some years. Clutches of 2-4 eggs is in end of April - early May. Both parents feed juveniles, which begin to fly in end of July - early August. When Upland Buzzard began to extend the breeding range to west (in Kazakhstan from 1991) it throughly hybridised with Long-legged Buzzard, and now such hybrids are not rare on breeding and migration. In autumn first birds in areas adjacent to breeding range appeared in the end of August.

References

"Птицы Казахстана" том 2. "Наука". Алма-Ата, 1962. Э.И.Гаврилов. "Фауна и распространение птиц Казахстана". Алматы, 1999. Gavrilov E. I., Gavrilov A. E. "The Birds of Kazakhstan". Almaty, 2005.