MyKrugerHoliday
Photo: caroline legg · CC BY 2.0 · source ↗
Steppe Buzzard
Bruinjakkalsvoël · Buteo buteo
Kruger's familiar summer buzzard, breeding in the Russian steppes and arriving with the first rains. Highly variable in colour, it perches on poles and bare branches scanning for rodents, reptiles and insects, then drops to seize them. Almost all depart north again before winter.
Log your Steppe Buzzard sighting — free →How to identify it
Medium brown raptor, very variable, usually with a pale chest band and unfeathered yellow legs (eagles have feathered legs).
Where to see it in Kruger
The most common buzzard, seen in summer on roadside poles and dead trees throughout the park.
Did you know
It flies in from Russia each summer, sometimes in flocks of a hundred following the mountains south.
Often confused with
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