Crested Honey Buzzard
Pernis ptilorhynchus
Also known as: Oriental Honey-Buzzard
About This Species
This raptor is a long-distance migrant, most conspicuous during spring and autumn passage when large numbers move together along coastal ridges, straits and mountain flyways. Look for a buzzard-like silhouette with a longer neck and small head, soaring on flattish wings or streaming past in loose flocks on migration days with favourable winds. In the breeding range it favours broadleaf and mixed forest, where it is far harder to see and mostly detected by its whistling calls overhead.
Ethical Viewing Guidelines
- Because most sightings are of birds in flight or soaring high overhead, keeping a simple, comfortable distance with binoculars is normally sufficient and avoids any disturbance.
- Raptors are legally protected across most of their range, including under the EU Birds Directive in Europe and equivalent wildlife laws in Asian range states, so nests should never be approached or disturbed, particularly during incubation.
- If a bird is seen at a low-level roost or migration bottleneck, stay back and avoid causing it to flush, since repeated disturbance at these sites can affect large numbers of migrating birds at once.
LCAvesAccipitriformesAccipitridae
Seasonal Activity
238,433 sightings · 2000–2026
Citizen science records via GBIF
All monthsThis month
Classification
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Accipitriformes
- Family
- Accipitridae
Photo
(c) Dmitry Dubikovskiy, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Dmitry Dubikovskiy
CC-BY-NC-4.0
Occurrence data from GBIF.