HONEY BUZZARD
The honey buzzard is a raptor that I have longed to see, and luckily for me, they seem quite common here. The honey buzzard or pern is larger and longer winged than the common buzzard. In flight, it appears to have a long neck and small head and soars on flat wings. The plumage is similar to the common buzzard, except that the underside of the tail has wide spaced dark bands, and the male has a blue-grey head and the female a brown head. Both sexes have yellow eyes, with the female being larger and darker than the male. On Kefalonia this bird can be seen near wooded hillsides and on Mt Ainos, but I have photographed them mostly around Avithos Lake.
The honey buzzard winters in tropical Africa and migrates North in April to breed. They tend not to like large stretches of water and cross the Mediterranean at its narrowest points. Honey buzzards do not eat a lot of honey. They do occasionally attack the nests of bees for the larvae, but their main prey are hornet and wasp nests. They have long toes and claws which are adapted to digging and raking out the larvae. These buzzards are believed to have chemical deterrents on their feathers which protect them from stings as well as scale-like feathering on their heads. A clutch of 2 eggs is laid in leaf lined stick nests in trees. Both parents are involved in feeding the chicks which are in the nest for 5 to 6 weeks.
