Le stationnement prolongé d’une Buse féroce dans le département de la Marne (France) en 2022

When you watch a buzzard with a reddish tail in Europe, you have to be particularly attentive: indeed, it may be a Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo), or maybe a Steppe Buzzard (B. b. vulpinus), an Atlas Buzzard (B. b. cirtensis), or even a Long-legged Buzzard (Buteo rufinus).
The Long-legged Buzzard, which is rare and accidental in Western Europe, is a raptor whose range extends from Eastern Europe to Mongolia and China. It is also expanding westward, and now breeds as far as Slovakia and Hungary. Isolated birds have already been observed in almost all European countries, including France, and they can sometimes stay several months in the same sector: this is the case of an individual discovered by Alain Balthazard, on the 22nd of June 2022 near the village of Thibie (Marne, Eastern France), and still present on the 7th of December 2022 at least.
After a presentation of the Long-legged Buzzard, we discuss its current status in Europe, we provide information on the remarkable sighting in Champagne, which constitutes one of the longest documented stays of the species in France, and we discuss the criteria that allowed us to determine the age of this bird and distinguish it from the Atlas and Steppe Buzzards. Finally, we evoke the case of the delicate and discussed identification of another buzzard observed in Vendée, Western France, in January 2022.
We would like to thank Nicolas Beraud (visit his Instagram page) and Philippe Colin, as well as all the other contributors whose names appear under their photos, for their photographs and their details.