page_title: White-eyed buzzard
section_title: Behaviour and ecology
hierarchical_section_title: White-eyed buzzard / Behaviour and ecology
caption_attribution_description: English: White-eyed Buzzard Butastur teesa in Kinnerasani Wildlife Sanctuary, Andhra Pradesh, India.
context_page_description: The white-eyed buzzard is a medium-sized hawk, distinct from the true buzzards in the genus Buteo, found in South Asia. Adults have a rufous tail, a distinctive white iris, and a white throat bearing a dark mesial stripe bordered. The head is brown and the median coverts of the upper wing are pale. They lack the typical carpal patches on the underside of the wings seen in true buzzards, but the entire wing lining appears dark in contrast to the flight feathers. They sit upright on perches for prolonged periods and soar on thermals in search of insect and small vertebrate prey. They are vociferous in the breeding season, and several birds may be heard calling as they soar together.
context_section_description: This species is usually seen soaring alone in thermals or perched still. Groups of two or three may sometimes be seen. They have a mewing call or falling whistle (transcribed as pit-weer) that is repeated when pairs are soaring. They are vociferous in the breeding season.
  They feed mainly on locusts, grasshoppers, crickets, and other large insects, as well as mice, lizards, and frogs. They may also take crabs from near wetlands and have been reported to take larger prey such as the black-naped hare (Lepus nigricollis).
  The breeding season is February to May. The nest is loose platform of twigs not unlike that of a crow, sometimes placed in a leafless tree. The usual clutch is three eggs, which are white and usually unspotted. Both sexes share nest-building and feeding young; the female alone incubates for about 19 days until the eggs hatch.
  A species of endoparasitic platyhelminth has been described from the liver of this species. A species of nematode, Contracaecum milvi, has been recorded in the liver and the stomach while Acanthocephalans, Mediorhynchus gibson and M. fatimae, has been described from the gut of specimens from Pakistan. Protozoa that live in the blood stream belonging to the genus Atoxoplasma have been isolated. Like most birds, they have specialized ectoparasitic bird lice such as Colpocephalum zerafae that are also known from other birds of prey. A study of power lines in Rajasthan in 2011 found white-eyed buzzards to be the second most common raptor killed by electrocution after kestrels.
caption: In flight, the dark wing lining and white throat are distinctive on the underside.
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