Specimen of rufous-morph Augur Buzzard Buteo augur from Zimbabwe

2 Pages·2003·1.1 MB·

by  William S Clark

Specimen of rufous-morph Augur Buzzard
Buteo augur from Zimbabwe
William S. Clark
L’auteurrapporteladecouverte d’unspecimen delaforme rousse delaBuseaugure Buteoaugur
,
souvantconsidereecommeunesous-espece archeri ouuneespecedistincte (Bused’Archer), qui
( )
avait ete collecte en l’actuel Zimbabwe, loin de sa distribution normale, en Somalie. II etait
toutefois identique a certains specimens de Somalie.
A
ugur Buzzard Buteo augurhas a rufous colour underwing-coverts shown by all adultJackal Buz-
morph that in adult plumage has a variable zards. A hybrid would show some black in these
amountofrufousonitsunderpartsandunderwing- areas.
coverts,fromcompletelyrufoustorufousrestricted I compared a photograph of the Zimbabwe
totheflanksandbelly;theyalsoshowrufousonthe specimen with rufous-morph Augur Buzzard
upperside ofthe secondaries. The underparts and (Archer’s Buzzard) specimens collected byArcher
underwing-coverts of normal pale-morph adult &Godman1 inSomaliadepositedintheAmerican
Augur Buzzards are completelywhite. Museum ofNatural History (AMNH) and others
Rufous-morphAugurBuzzardsoccurprimarily from Somalia in the Natural History Museum,
innorthernSomalia2 wheretheyweredescribedas Tring(NHM).Itsunderpartsappearedexactlylike
, AMNH NHM
‘Archer’sBuzzards1.’Clark2discussedwhyArcher’s two adult males, 334339 and
AMNH
Buzzardshould not be considered specificallyand 1923.8.7.7383, and an adult female,
concluded it to be a subspecies ofAugur Buzzard. 534355. Further, itsuppertailwasidenticaltothat
AMNH
I now consider it to be a rufous colour-morph of of 534355.
Augur Buzzard and not asubspecies. Asubspecies One would expect that the genetic signal for
should occupy a geographic range exclusive of rufous underpartsofthismorphofAugurBuzzard
individuals of other subspecies. Adult Augur would spread beyond the core area of northern
Buzzardswithavariableamountofrufousontheir Somalia.Therefore,itisnotsurprisingthatrufous-
underparts, from none (typicalAugur Buzzard) to morph Augur Buzzard specimens have also been
sometomuch,havealsobeencollectedinthesame collected in nearby Ethiopia and Kenya2 and live
,
locations in Somalia as adults with completely buzzards have been seen in Djbouti2. But, it is
rufous underparts2 remarkablethatthisspecimenoccurredsofarfrom
.
Thus, it was with great interest that I found a the core area. A final question is: can or should
specimen ofa rufous-morph Augur Buzzard (Fig these rufous-morph adultAugur Buzzards still be
1) in the collection of the Transvaal Museum, called ‘Archer’s Buzzards’?
Pretoria (TM 40131). It had been collected in
present-day Zimbabwe. The specimen tag Acknowledgements
contained the following information: Buteojackal I thank the curators of the Transvaal Museum
orButeoaugur. Location:Vumba,4300’ Southern (Pretoria), Natural History Museum (Tring) and
W
Rhodesia. Adult female. 8 Sept. T4. L 22° ”, AmericanMuseumofNaturalHistory(NewYork),
16°”,TL7°”Iris:greyish-brown,Bill:Black,lower especiallyAlan Kemp, RobertPrys-JonesandPaul
mandible base paleyellow-green. P. A. Sheppard. Sweet, for permission to examine specimens. Ron
This specimen is within the range ofAugur Demey, Bob Dowsett and Iain Robertson made
Buzzard but not far from the range ofthe similar helpful comments on earlier drafts, ff?
JackalBuzzardButeorufofuscus.Asinadultplumage
thelatteralsoshowsmuchrufousontheunderparts References
andalsohasarufoustail,couldthisspecimenbeof 1. Archer,G.A.andGodman,E.M. 1937. TheBirdsof
anadultJackaloradulthybridAugur/Jackal? Both British Somaliland and the GulfofAden. Vol 1.
of these possibilities can be eliminated by the London, UK: Oliver & Boyd.
specimen’s lack ofblack on the throat, belly and
Rufous-morphAugurBuzzardspecimen: Clark BullABC Vol 10No2-107
Figure 1. Rufous-morphAugurBuzzardButeoaugur(Archer’s Buzzard) specimen in theTransvaal Museum, collected
inpresent-dayZimbabwe, farfrom its usual range in Somalia (William S. Clark)
2. Clark,W.S. 1996.ThevalidityofArcher’sBuzzard 2301 S. Whitehouse Circle, Harlingen, TX 78550,
as aspecies.J. Afr. RaptorBiol. 11:11-13. USA.
Tropical
SpecialistbirdingtripstoAfrica
AND MADAGASCAR’S MOSTEXCITING Birding
DESTINATIONS, NOWATYOUR FINGERTIPS.
BirdingtripstoMadagascar, Namibia, SouthAfrica,Tanzania, Uganda, Cameroon, Nigeriaand Ghana.
108-BullABC Vol 10No2 Rufous-morphAugurBuzzardspecimen: Clark