Black baza
| Black baza | |
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| Black baza | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Accipitriformes |
| Family: | Accipitridae |
| Genus: | Aviceda |
| Species: | A. leuphotes |
| Binomial name | |
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Aviceda leuphotes (Dumont, 1820) |
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| Global range Year-Round Range Summer Range Winter Range | |
| Synonyms | |
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Falco leuphotes |
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Falco leuphotes
The black baza (Aviceda leuphotes) is a small sized bird of prey found in the forests of 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.
The black baza is a small and distinctively coloured raptor; it ranges from 30 to 35 cm in length, a 66 to 80 cm wingspan and a weight of 168 to 224 g. When perched, the upright crest and contrasting patterns make it difficult to misidentify. The male has white scapulars, secondary coverts and on the secondaries. The female has white only on the scapulars and more chestnut bands on the underside unlike the few bands in the male.
In flight it is crow like and is often seen in small groups or flocks during migration. During migration, they are gregarious at their roost. They are somewhat crepuscular and more active at dusk and in overcast weather.
They feed mainly on insects by making aerial sallies. They may also pick insects off a leaf, the insects always seized with their feet. They have been observed to attempt capturing small birds such as wagtails by making dashes into flocks. They have been noted to join mixed-species foraging flocks. It has also been known to feed on the fruits of the oil palm. They are somewhat crepuscular in habit. The call is a "chu-weep" somewhat similar to the call of the large cuckoo-shrike. Other descriptions include a soft squeal or whistle and a shrill gull-like mewing.
Like others in the genus Aviceda they have two tooth like indentations on the edge of the upper bill. Birds are said to have a disagreeable odour which has been said to be "bug-like".
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.
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Wikipedia