page_title: Black baza
section_title: Taxonomy and systematics
hierarchical_section_title: Black baza / Taxonomy and systematics
caption_attribution_description: Bill of Aviceda leuphotes showing notch
context_page_description: The black baza is a small sized bird of prey found in the forests of the Northeast India, the eastern Himalayas, China and Southeast Asia. Many populations are migratory. The races in the Indian region are migratory, wintering in the south of the Peninsula and Sri Lanka. The black bazas have short, stout legs and feet with strong talons. A prominent crest is a feature of the bazas. They are found in dense forest often in small groups. They are also known to spend a lot of time perching on bare branches of tall trees rising above the forest canopy.
context_section_description: The bird was first described based on a specimen from Pondicherry under the name of Falco leuphotes. Several geographic races have been described including wolfei which is based on a single specimen from Sichuan and may belong to the nominate subspecies. The named forms include the following, but they have been questioned and further study has been called for.
  A. l. syama (Hodgson, 1837) from eastern Nepal, northeastern India to south China which winters in Indo-China and the Malaya Peninsula.
  A. l. leuphotes (Dumont, 1820) was once claimed to breed in South-Western India, but no evidence exists and this is doubtful. It is said to breed in Burma and Thailand, in which case it would likely be the same as syama, although the population in this region has in the past been assigned the name of burmana.
  A. l. andamanica (Abdulali & Grubh, 1970) is endemic to the Andaman Islands (South Andaman I) and has completely white underparts lacking any chestnut bands.
caption: Characteristic "tooth" on the upper mandible
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