Birds Without Borders: The Great Avian Migration From Europe to Africa pt. 2
The Honey Buzzard's flight to sub-Saharan Africa
Birds Without Borders is an article series focusing on native European bird species. In this second installment, we are looking at the honey buzzard. For the fist part about storks, please click here.
Millions of birds migrate across Europe every year, from North to South and East to West, crossing borders and countries. Their migration comes to the delight of birdwatchers all over the European continent and beyond. When summer ends, it’s not just the storks who leave, but other species too. The honey buzzard is one of the birds of prey that packs up and flies southwards to sub-Saharan Africa.
The honey buzzard derives its name from the binomen Pernis Apivorus, literally meaning “bee-eating bird of prey”. They are also generally known as perns, or common perns. Apivorus derives from the Latin apis, “bee” and –vorus, “eating”. Pernis, on the other hand, is supposed to be a corrupted form of pernes, a term used by Aristotle in his History of animals to identify birds of prey. And in fact, its diet is based on insects such as bees or wasps and their nests and larvaes, although it sometimes eats other insects, small mammals and birds or reptiles.
With the exception of the British isles, tundras and steppes, these birds breed in most of Europe. You can see them in amazingly large numbers over sea straits such as those of Gibraltar or Messina before their long flights over western Sahara. Numerous flocks alternatively pass through the Bosporus, before taking the eastern route towards Africa.
Migration
Sadly, migratory birds are a privileged target for poachers, and honey buzzards make no exception. Hundreds of those raptors get shoot-down every year, according to Italy’s LIPU (Italian League for Bird Protection). Most of these killings take place in the Italian regions of Calabria and Sicily, as well as in Malta. Luckily, though, such illegal practices are declining in Italy, thanks to tighter norms on hunting and increased wildlife guards patrols.
While concerning, these hunting practices haven’t considerably affected the western migration route taken by this species – which goes from Scandinavia to southern Spain. The honey buzzard remains classified as a species of “least concern” in terms of its conservation status. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, in fact, the honey buzzard does not qualify as threatened, near threatened, or conservation dependent.
