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Name: Crested Honey-Buzzard
Scientific name: (Pernis ptilorhynchus)
Malay name: Helang Lebah
Description:
51-61cm (20.4 - 24.4in). Plumage highly variable but longish tail and neck together with small pigeon-like head distinctive. Wings long and broad, usually held horizontal when soaring or slightly down-curved with upturned tips when gliding. When perched, shows drooping crest which varies in length. Upperparts vary from dark to rusty brown or creamy white, usually marked with dark bars or streaks. Head usually greyish (sometimes white), often showing dark malar stripe and pale throat with dark mesial rufous bars on breast, belly, greater wing coverts with dark trailing edge of wings and wingtips. Tail patterns vary; in most cases marked with three unevenly spaced bold dark bands but sometimes with a broad white central band. Bill and cere dark grey; legs yellow; iris pale orange.
Voice:
Loud and high-pitched ringing notes—but does not usually call on migration.
Range:
Breeding throughout northern temperate Asia, India, and Southeast Asia discontinuously to the Greater Sundas and the Philippines. Migratory and winters south to tropical latitudes.
Status and distribution:
Common passage migrant in very large numbers at Tanjung Tuan (Melaka) during autumn (October-November) and spring (February-March) passage. Numbers in the early 1960s during the peak month of migration were estimated to be about 120,000. It is still not uncommon to see over 1,000 pass Tg Tuan on a good day.
Habitat:
Forests, heavily wooded areas, open country (during migration).
Habits:
Feeds principally on the larvae of honey bees and wasps which it obtains by breaking up their nests. Will also take small vertebrate prey. Migratory populations tend to fly at great heights in large scattered flocks during passage, using thermals, and often strung out in lines, one after another.
Interesting Facts:
It’s a raptor that has a head that looks like a pigeon.
The Crested Honey Buzzards also known as the Oriental Honey Buzzard feeds on bee and wasps’ larvae. It does from time to time consume animals such as little frogs and other small reptiles.
The Crested Honey Buzzard breeds in temperate Asia, India and Southeast Asia. It travels all the way to the Indonesian Archipelago during the winter months in search of warmer climate, food and shelter.
There has also been records of resident Crested Honey Buzzards that does not migrate. 2 breeding records have been found so far.
The Crested Honey Buzzard has hard scale-like feathers around its head and legs to protect it from being stung by bees and wasps during its feeding ambush on hives. It has a small pigeon like head with a slightly elongated neck.
It lives in forested and heavily wooded areas in its breeding grounds and in open country in the wintering grounds.
While migrating the Crested Honey Buzzard flies at incredible heights often making it impossible for the naked eye to see. They fly in large flocks catching thermals (columns of hot air rising from the ground), which takes them to greater heights.
Scientific records from the 1960s shows approximately 160,000 Crested Honey Buzzards flying through Tanjung Tuan. It is still possible to see over 1000 birds flying through Tanjung Tuan on a single day.
90% of the migratory raptors that can be seen during Raptor Watch are the Crested Honey Buzzards.
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