h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi, Willem

I never thought I would enjoy reading about buzzards, but you've placed them in context within their taxonomies and explained their migrations (Who would have thought that any birds would breed in the Northern Hemisphere and overwinter in the Southern? of course, we Americans have butterflies that migrate north to south, but they still stay in the Northern hemisphere. And we have loons that migrate between the Gulf Coast and Canada. Many of our songbirds
winter as far south as Costa Rica, but I don't know if any get as far south as, say Argentina or Chile.

So it blows my mind to imagine these buzzards migrating from Europe to South Africa

When I saw your picture, I thought the bird might be a hawk or falcon. It makes sense that the buzzard is related to hawks.

Hello! I'm very happy you found this fascinating! Now actually we have here in South Africa many visitors that breed in Europe and North and East Asia and come here for a sunny holiday. For me the most impressive are the willow warblers who are tiny birds but come here each year all the way from Siberia (among other places).

That is truly amazing!

I just love the name "Willow warblers."

Guess who has to unwarble the willows afterwards… (Not me!)

Used to be stalked by a buzzard for years (at least, I had that impression). Everytime I went hiking I saw it on a regular basis.

Now I learnt, given the number of buzzards in the world, it might just be that it wasn't the same buzzard everytime after all, but it could be one of those over there in South Africa.


Thanks for sharing this information.

The fact that you saw, not the same, but a *different* buzzard every time you went out walking sounds more ominous to me than the idea of seeing the same one...

That suggests some kind of conspiracy / organisation.

To reduce suspicion they hired their cousins, the black kites when I was walking the Pyrenees. Unfortunately, they didn't communicate that it should be only one, so the kites came in their thousands instead.

Hi Caiman raptor elk! Glad you appreciate this. We generally just leave the willows warbled over here. The buzzard or buzzards probably just like sitting on the regular basis.

I used to listen to CD's of bird calls, thinking that I could memorize the sounds so as to recognize them when real birds made them. Turns out I've been unable to memorize many of them.

Hi Paulh! I had a whole set of audio cassettes with the calls of the majority of the bird species of Southern Africa. For me, memorizing the calls came fairly easily. Over here on bird-watching outings, it is very important to be able to ID species by their calls. My birdwatching buddies usually bring along an app that can play back bird calls … we sometimes use that to lure birds closer.

This is an old hillbilly amusement, as well. My dad once enticed a bobwhite to get close to my grandparents' farmhouse, while I sat and admired.

The bird got close enough to realise it was being fooled, and flew off in annoyance.

Is annoying birds becoming a game that one can play?

Sure. Just learn the mating call.

But I'm lazy. Can I tape-record it and play it back?

Yes you can!

Anyways here's a bobwhite's call: I dare say not that hard to imitate!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePOIAwIsmQA

Buzzards are beautiful birds - I am always pleased to see them A87932136 and I enjoyed reading more about them from your perspective, Willem, and seeing your superb painting

Jackal-bird is a good name, as their call is very noticeable.

Fascinating indeed that some of the buzzards go to such lengths to find food, while others don't move much... Interesting that the females are larger than males from a very early age. There certainly seem to be more buzzards around in Britain than, say, 20 years ago when Kestrels were more numerous...

Some 'tape lures' are illegal in the UK now - certainly for Cetti's Warblers and possibly for a few other species, too. Very handy to learn the calls, to help with finding different species of birds - I have a CD, too, that I need to sit down with one day, although I have been learning more calls just from spending more time in nature reserves