This photo-article describes and illustrates field characters for 5 different Rough-legged Buzzards (Buteo lagopus), which winters in an area in Northern Sealand, Denmark. The photos have all been taken in the winter 2004/2005 and the autumn 2005. The buzzards are two adult males and 3 juveniles. The two adult males have been present at the location in both seasons. Two of the juveniles were present in the winter 2004/2005, the last arrived in autumn 2005.
The 5 different birds have been named, to better distinguish between them.

Introduction of the 5 buzzards:

"Pearl" - an adult male, which has been present at the location in both seasons. He can be identified by being very dark on both upper- and underside, and having a light breast-band. Besides that he has a lot of small light dots "Pearls" in the dark underside-feathers.

He is very shy, and spends most of his time in the top of an electrical tower. Close-ups have only been possible by use of a hide.

 

"Silver" - an adult male, has been present at the location in both seasons. He can be identified by being rather light on the upperside - almost silverish-grey, and very light on the underside with only a little hint of a "belly-band".

He is also very shy, and I have mostly seen him in bush-tops or hovering over a field. He has been hunting in the same field as "Pale", who maybe is his young.
 

"Pale" - a juvenile bird (born 2004), who was present at the location in the first season from November to April. The bird is very pale on both upper- and underside.

"Pale" was very tame, especially in the autumn 2004 and could often be observed from a nearby road. "Pale" hunted in the same area as "Silver", and was in general very active at hovering.
 

"Dark" - a juvenile bird (born in 2004), was seen at a couple of occasions in the first season, primarily in January. The bird is relatively dark, especially on the throat. The dark throat could indicate that it is a male.

"Dark" was very tame, and hunted from fenceposts and by hovering. He also did some hovering in snowstorms!

"Medium" - a juvenile bird (born 2005), who arrived to the location on  October 22nd this year. It's pretty ordinary coloured .

"Medium" is rather tame and hunts actively (hovering) close to a road in the same area as "Pale" did last year. "Medium" has also been seen with "Silver" who might be it's parent.

On both adult males ("Pearl" and "Silver") can be seen with the characteristic dark eye, and a light dot in the front above the beak, which on adult birds are more clearly seen than on juveniles. On both males you can see that the throat is darker than the belly, especially on "Silver".

On all the juvenile birds you can see the characteristic light eye with dark pupil, and the dark belly-band next to the ligther throat and breast. Especially "Pale" has a very light throat.

It can be seen here that the two males differs in upperside colour. "Pearl" is very dark and Common Buzzard-like, whereas "Silver" upperside is silver-grey and the individual feathers are nicely drawn with patterns and light edges.

Seen from the back, the three juvenile birds don't differ that much from each other. They are all brown, and the individual feathers are uniformly brown(ish). Especially on "Dark" you can see how the tail has 3-4 dark bands above, but with a lot of brown in between them. The characteristic white upper-tail is difficult to see on sitting birds.

On both the adult males' underside it is clearly seen that the  throat  is somewhat darker than the bellyband, plus a distinct dark edge on the back of the wings. The tail has (on the underside) a black terminal-band and one extra smaller band. On "Silver" the 2nd band is very pale.

The three juveniles all show the characteristic dark bellyband. It can also be seen that both the back of the wings and tail only have a very pale  terminalband.

On both the adult males' upper-side you can see the details in the individual feathers, and therefore the overall impression is that of a mottled bird. Especially "Silver" , who is rather light. It can also be seen that tail-bands on the upper-side are not that distinct, although the terminalband  which is followed by 3-4 other bands that can be identified. This is mostly obvious on "Silver".

The juveniles show the characteristic white "Golden Eagle pattern" on the upper-side of the hand, plus lighter areas in the middle of the arm. The tail is very brown with a soft edge to the white, and bands are difficult to identify. Apparently the brown on the tail is on a larger area than the white (the case is opposite for the adults).
 

When going down for prey, the white areas on the upper-wings are very characteristic.