And he even posed for me for a while, until a crowd arrived.
We were driving on a narrow single lane road, and thankfully my wife saw him, as he sat on a tree at the car's passenger side.
So, I slammed on brakes and pulled the car hurriedly as far as I could to the side of the road.
But what is this? The famous Jackal Buzzard (Buteo rufofuscus), and over the past few months, I could only get him on camera high up in the sky. So, it is rare to get them so close on a high tree trunk top. This was a very big tree, but if you look at the center of the trunk where it was cut off, then you will see that the core is rotten, due to a beetle infestation. I presume that at some time the entire tree will be removed, but at this stage the tree stump was still high up.
The photo below will show you how high up he was.
The cut trunk was higher than the tops of the surrounding trees, and the bird had an excellent spot to search for rodents, snakes or anything else that moved.
A pair of eyes sunk into caverns that will be the last that any little animal will see during the bird's attack.
I was wondering what he was looking at, as I was so intent on getting the bird on camera, that I didn't look around me. People on bicycles and some cars had arrived and everyone was staring at the bird that I was taking photos of. I saw that I was standing in the road, and I moved out of the way, but they didn't move on, as everyone was oohing and aahing.
You can see below that the bird gave me an angry look for disturbing his peace, and I knew that that he was going to take off.
Yep, I was right, as there he went.
I followed his flight and he settled far down in another tree down the road. Thankfully my zoom was on his case.
Yep, he gave me a last look, and then we had to depart as the people in the cars could not get past us.
Finally, buzzards are hunters on the lower mountain slopes, and the surrounding areas.
One guy on a bicycle asked what kind of bird it was, and I told him that it was a jackal buzzard, so he went to tell his friends. People are amazing in this place, as everyone, or almost everyone has a deep love for nature, and they were kind enough to wait until the bird left. I was happy to get the bird and also happy that I can share it with you now.
If you want to know more about the buzzards, then you can visit a Wikipedia link HERE
I love the big birds of prey and they are elegant in flight.
Hope that you have enjoyed my find.
Photos by Zac Smith -All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
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