honey buzzards
photo copyright Tony Cross
Honey Buzzards are a rare and elusive raptor in Wales. One of the main breeding areas in South Wales coincides with some of the Welsh Assembly Governments favoured areas for large windfarms. There is therefore concern that such developments could affect the current population, or reduce its capacity to spread.
In addition, little is known as to where the Welsh population winters, or the migration routes used to reach their wintering grounds.
Working with Steve Roberts, a honey buzzard expert and member of the Welsh Raptor Study Group and under licence from the Countryside Council for Wales, Ecologymatters have fitted two honey buzzards in Wales with satellite tags. This will allow us to follow their movements around the breeding grounds, to look at hunting range and habitat usage as well as tracking their migration. If the pilot project in 2008 is successful we plan to tag further birds in future years.
2008 project:
Initially two adult birds were caught under licence in August once their young were nearly fledged and fitted with Microwave Telemetry 22g Solar GPS/Argos PTT satellite tags
One male was caught in South Wales - this pair's nest can be seen on video at the Afan Forest Park in Neath Port Talbot. (See http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-6S9HK8).
A second bird – a female - was caught at a North Wales site, away from proposed windfarm developments, to act as a control.
photos copyright Tony Cross
The tags are solar powered and should last up to 5 years.
Due to the very poor weather in 2008, initial results were slow as the tags did not power up to give a full number of ‘hits’. However, a couple of sunny days gave us a lot of useful data on movements around habitats as the birds prepare for their autumn migration.
Regular updates on the birds migration journey will be given here: Honey Buzzard Project Updates, or contact us for further information.
We would like to thank Nuon Renewables for sponsorship of this project.
Honey Buzzards
Although superficially resembling the common buzzard, Honey Buzzards are in fact more closely related to kites. They are a secretive and elusive bird which spends a lot of time in the tree canopy of their forest habitat.
Honey Buzzards are one of the most abundant Birds of Prey in Europe. The population is estimated to be around 160,000 pairs, the bulk of which are found in Russia.
In Britain, however, they were never recorded as common and probably became extinct around the turn of the century. They returned to breed occasionally and until recently the number of pairs was believed to only be low. In the last few years they appear to be increasing and the British population is now assessed to be at least 100 pairs. They were first recorded breeding in Wales around 1991, and the population here is now possibly 20 pairs.
Honey Buzzards are forest dwellers. They are highly secretive, moving between trees and rarely being seen within the wood. They require large woods or forests and are usually found in areas where there is a high proportion of forest cover.
Honey Buzzards are unlike other large raptors in that they specialise in eating insects, with wasp larvae making up a large part of their diet. They have adaptations that protect them from stings and help them deal with their prey: their legs and feet are heavily scaled and the feathers around the bill are dense and scale like. The bill is long and curved with an extended point suitable for holding insects, and their nostrils are reduced to long slits that are less likely to become blocked with soil as they dig for wasp nests. They are not entirely dependent on insects, with frogs being important and young fledgling birds sometimes taken as alternative prey.
Honey Buzzards nest in woods being mainly in conifers in Wales. They build nests made of twigs and lined with fresh leaves. The average number of eggs laid is two (range one-three), and incubation is shared by both parents. Both adults forage and feed the chicks, and after fledging, the young continue to be fed by the adults for about a month, although one adult may leave before all the young fledge.
Honey Buzzards migrate from their breeding grounds in Europe and Asia to sub-saharan Africa and southern Asia where they find adequate food supplies during the winter months. Large, and occasionally, spectacular numbers can be seen during their migration where their routes converge at narrow sea crossings such as at the Straights of Gibraltar, the Straits of Messina, the Bosphorus and at Falsterbo in southern Sweden. Little is known of the migration of the small British population with only a few birds having been ringed.
References
Breeding European Honey-buzzards in Britain Roberts, SJ; Lewis, JMS and Williams, IT British Birds. Vol. 92, no. 7, pp. 326-345. Jul 1999.
Notes on the diet of the honey buzzard - British Birds 94/9
More information on Honey Bzzards, including details of radio tracking birds from Scotland can be found on http://www.roydennis.org/honeybuzzard.htm
Further information on birds migrating to West and Central Africa is available from the West African Ornithological Society http://malimbus.free.fr/trakindx.htm
