Little did Johan Mocke know when he took this magnificent photo at Delheim that he was possibly documenting a new species.  Shortly after it appeared on Twitter, we received an e-mail from Darren Bruce-Brand, who had asked his bird enthusiast mother Pam to identify it.  This is how she responded: “This is an “Elgin Buzzard” -  a mystery bird everyone is talking about as even the experts say that the Forest Buzzard and the Steppe Buzzard have closely overlapped and now may be intergrated; so they want to rename the bird and call it the Elgin Buzzard, but that’s not official.  I have photographed it as well and sent it in to the experts.”

A little rooting around on the internet took me to this site, where Bill Clark shares his observations on these unusual birds: http://www.africanraptors.org/some-thoughts-on-the-unusual-buzzards-in-the-south-cape-area-william-s-clark/

We keenly await news on this one!

UPDATE:  Pam informs us that the latest Africa Birds and Birding Magazine October/November 2010 Vol 15 No 5 has an article on these mystery birds titled “Mixed Messages” An update on the mystery Buzzards to the link provided above on pg 35.

Categories: DELHEIM

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