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- Butastur teesa
Identification
A small greyish brown hawk, about 45cm long, the White-eyed Buzzard has a white throat, two dark cheek stripes, brown and white underparts, and orange-yellow cere. Eyes white or yellowish white, conspicuous at close quarters. A whitish nuchal patch and buffish wing shoulders provide additional clues to its identity. Sexes alike. Singly, in open scrub country.
Call: A not unpleasant, plaintive mewing, usually uttered when pairs soar in circles high up in the air. Often in company with larger birds of prey, silhouette, of the rounded wings reminiscent of the Shikra.
Distribution
Southern Asia. Breeds in Pakistan, most of India except the far south-west, Nepal, western China, Burma and south to southern Thailand. Resident. -west Yunnan, Thailand, southern Laos, south Vietnam and Cambodia. Also in south-east Borneo, Sulawesi and Java. Resident.
Taxonomy
Habitat
Dry, open woodland and scrub, occurring up to 900m in the Himalayas.
Behaviour
Perches on dry trees, telegraph posts, etc., and swoops down on its prey.
The diet includes locusts, grasshoppers, crickets and other large insects as well as mice, lizards and frogs.
Breeding season: February to May. Both sexes build a loose, unlined cup of twigs in the fork of a thickly foliaged tree. 3, greenish white eggs are laid and are incubated by the female. Both parents feed the young.
