The crested honey buzzard (Pernis ptilorhynchus), also known as the Oriental, Asiatic, or Eastern honey buzzard, is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as kites, eagles, and harriers. It is a fairly large raptor, larger than the European honey buzzard. The name honey buzzard is derived from their diets, which consist mainly of the larvae of bees and wasps extracted from honey combs. It is sexually dimorphic and has six subspecies.

Crested honey buzzards migrate for breeding to Siberia and Japan during the summer. They then spend the winter in Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. They are also a year-round resident in these latter areas. They prefer well-forested areas with open spaces and are found from sea level up to .

The species has several adaptations for its specialist diet. These include an elongated head for foraging on underground nests and a groove in the tongue for extracting wasp grubs from their comb cells. A mass of short, dense feathers on the head and neck protect against stinging attacks by social wasps. Juveniles may have adopted Batesian mimicry to deter predators.

Taxonomy

The crested honey buzzard was obtained from the island of Java by the Dutch zoologist C.J. Temminck. He depicted and named it as Falco ptilorhynchus in March 1821.

The British Museum Catalogue of Accipitres published in 1874 by R. Bowdler Sharpe lists the names Falco ptilorhynchus (attributed to Temminck, 1823) and Pernis ptilorhynchus (attributed to J.F. Stephens, 1826). Sharpe was perhaps unaware that Temminck's early illustrations had scientific names on the wrappers of the parts (livraisons) of his work and he cited Temminck's later works. In 1874, the British Museum had 18 specimens of the crested honey buzzard and its Catalogue listed nine different species names of genus Pernis for these.

The crested honey buzzard (Pernis ptilorhynchus) includes six subspecies, which are shown in the table below.

{| class="wikitable"

|+ Subspecies of Pernis ptilorhynchus.

! Scientific name !! Authority !! Breeding range

|-

| P. p. orientalis || Taczanowski, 1891 || South Siberia to NE China and Japan

|-

| P. p. ruficollis || Lesson, R, 1830 || India and Sri Lanka to Myanmar, Vietnam and SW China

|-

| P. p. torquatus || Lesson, R, 1830 || Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo

|-

| P. p. ptilorhynchus || (Temminck, 1821) || Java

|-

| P. p. palawanensis || Stresemann, 1940 || Palawan group (SW Philippines)

|-

| P. p. philippensis || Mayr, 1939 || Philippines (except Palawan group and Sulu Archipelago)

|-

|}

Despite its name, the crested honey buzzard is not related to Buteo buzzards, and is taxonomically closer to the kites.

Description

thumb|Front view of male, [[Valparai, Tamil Nadu, India]]

About in size, the crested honey buzzard is a fairly large The head lacks a strong superciliary ridge, giving it a facial appearance very unlike a raptor. It appears long-necked with a small head resembling that of a pigeon. It has a long tail and a short head crest. It is brown above, but not as dark as the European honey buzzard, and paler below. A dark throat stripe is present. Unusually for a large bird of prey, the sexes can be distinguished. The male has a blue-grey head with brown iris, while the female's head is brown and the iris is yellow. She is slightly larger and darker than the male. The male has two black bands in the tail and three black under wing bands, while the female has three black tail bands and four narrower black under wing bands. The juvenile has extensive black primary tips with narrower underwing bands. It has a yellow cere at the base of the bill, and a dark iris. The colouration and the tail pattern of the species are highly variable.

thumb|Oriental Honey Buzzard (dark morph), Bandipur National Park, India

In flight, it is likely to be mistaken at a distance for the short-toed snake-eagle. However, it can be distinguished by its slimmer head and longer neck. It is usually seen soaring singly or in pairs, or it may be perched on a tree top. It is quiet even while nesting, sometimes uttering a single high-pitched screaming whistle. These are examples of Batesian mimicry, named after the English naturalist and explorer H.W. Bates who first reported such mimicry in the context of Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) in 1861.

Distribution and habitat

The crested honey buzzard is a summer migrant to Siberia and Korea, Japan, wintering in tropical Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. It leaves Siberia in late August and returns in May. The summer sojourn in Japan is April–May to mid-September. In Europe, the crested honey buzzard has been documented in Italy in 2011, in Cyprus in 2012, at the Strait of Messina, and in Lesvos, Greece in 2018.

<gallery mode = packed heights = 160px>

Oriental Honey Buzzard Pernis ptilorhynchus by Dr. Raju Kasambe DSCN9254 (1).jpg|P. p. ruficollis<br>Maharashtra, India

Crested honey-buzzard (Pernis Ptilorhynchus orientalis) in flight Qianshan.jpg|P. p. orientalis<br>Yangmingshan, Taiwan

</gallery>

It has been recorded on the Alaskan island of Shemya. This record is the first known occurrence of this species in North America, and the individual photographed represents the subspecies P. p. orientalis.

The crested honey buzzard prefers well-forested lowland and hilly areas that are broken by open glades. In South and Southeast Asia it is sometimes found in small groves near villages. It is found from sea level to , occasionally up to . During migrations it goes above . It occasionally eats small birds, reptiles and frogs like other raptors. The breeding season in the migratory range is June to mid-September for central Siberia and April to August in Japan. In India, it is April–June, though it starts in February in South India. The tongue has a groove adapted for extracting larvae from the honey comb. In the wintering regions in South Asia, crested honey buzzards are observed attacking social wasp nests in trees.

On the positive side, the species appears to be adapting to the availability of anthropogenic habitats. It has colonized irrigated forest plantations in some areas of Pakistan. It has recently spread to the Middle East and regularly winters in small numbers in Arabia. These birds may be migrating from Siberia using a pathway over Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan that is west of the Himalayas.

Falconry as a hobby in Indonesia started in the 1970s. As Facebook is popular in Indonesia, it is used for the illegal sale of raptors. Two studies of a number of Facebook groups were conducted during 2015. In both studies combined, the total number of birds offered for sale was about 10,000. The most popular raptors were black-winged kite and changeable hawk eagle, accounting for about 39% of the 10,000. In contrast, crested honey buzzards accounted for only about 1%.

In culture

In the island of Java in Indonesia, people living in or near forested areas suffer from attacks, sometimes fatal, by giant honey bees. The local people and honey collectors blame the honey buzzards for these attacks. This raptor attacks the nests of the giant honey bee. As it flies away with a piece of the honeycomb in its claws, it is pursued by angry bees. The local belief is that as its escape strategy the honey buzzard flies close to humans in the vicinity to transfer the attack of the angry bees to the humans. However, in a study of the hunting behaviour of honey buzzards conducted between 2003 and 2019, no evidence of this strategy was observed by the researchers. They surmised that a decline in the habitat due to human activity has increased the conflict between bees and humans.

References

  • Image of Oriental Honey-buzzard attacking a bee hive, Taiwan, 2018, Bird Ecology Study Group (BESG), National University of Singapore.