Long-legged Buzzard

The long-legged buzzard inhabits arid areas of northern Africa, southeastern Europe, west and central Asia east to China, and down to as far as central India. The farthermost western part of their breeding range is in west Africa, in Western Sahara, extreme northern Mauritania, much of Morocco west to northern Algeria (spottily elsewhere in the nation), Tunisia and northern Libya (mainly northwestern parts). Long-legged buzzards occur accidentally in several other parts of Africa. In mainland Europe, they mainly nest in the southeastern region. Nesting long-legged buzzards have been known in eastern Hungary, central and eastern Ukraine, southern Moldova, southern and far eastern Romania, southern Serbia and more broadly in Bulgaria and somewhat so in northern Greece. Recent sightings indicate that there is a small population in the Apulian region of south-eastern Italy. Similarly, increasing records of long-legged buzzards are known in far southern Spain with the first nesting occurring in Gibraltar in 2009. The recent colonisation Europe due to the climate in southern Europe becoming more suitable for this species. Vagrant long-legged buzzards have been documented in many parts of Europe, including Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and one record in Shetland in Great Britain on 1 September 2019. …

Although frequently described as sluggish, the long-legged buzzard appears by most accounts to be a fairly active and powerful predator. This species often hunts by pounces on unwary prey from a variety of lookout perches. Long-legged buzzards, like many Buteo, regularly still-hunt, using tallish or high perch sites or mounds, spending long periods of time scanning the ground. Regular perch sites while hunting may include power poles, pylons, powerlines, boulders, rocky outcrops and dead and sometimes live trees. They also will watch for prey whilst standing on the ground, sometimes right by the entrance of a prey's burrow. No less often, they may hunt on the wing from hovering or active flight. During hunting on the wing they often hang in the air, at up to about 30 m (100 ft) above the ground, for sometimes several minutes, before dropping steepwise and making a short stoop. It is likely that the habitat being used and dictating availability of perches or sloping land from which to watch the ground dictate the variations in hunting modes seen in this species. Often the preferred hunting habitat is fairly open including upland steppe, arid semi-desert and cultivated fields. …